Major factors contributing to the construction waste generation in building projects of Iraq

Abstract

Due to the economic growth and improvement of the construction industry witnessed by most countries, there has become a crucial need for employing modern possibilities in the construction sector to build taller, longer and deeper structures. However, one aspect that heads forward with the same intensity is the generation of 100 million tons of construction waste every year. This generation has occurred due to several factors with different levels of importance. Hence, this study reveals 15 factors influencing construction waste generation and categorizes them into 3 groups, (materials management on site), (materials handling, transportation and storage) and (site management and practices). A questionnaire survey of 100 respondents was distributed among different engineers to assess the construction waste factors. Results showed that damage of materials on site, double handling of materials and incompetent contractor's technical staff were the most significant factors of each category with Relative Importance Indexes (RII) of 0.866, 0.844 and 0.83, respectively. These findings will help the practitioners to reduce construction waste quantities in sites and improve waste management performance factors to control the construction waste problems.