Impact of labour arrangements on construction material waste generation

Abstract

Construction waste originates from various sources from the inception through completion of a building project. Previous research has shown that there is a link between the quantity of waste generated and the way labour is organized in the construction industry. However, these studies have failed to look into the sources of waste and how it affects the waste generation. To fill this gap in the literature, this study investigated the impact of labour arrangements on construction waste generation, particularly the sources of waste origin and the attitudes of workers. Using a combination of direct observations and source evaluations on the sites of six case studies, the construction waste in direct and subcontracted labour arrangements was quantified. A questionnaire survey was administered among the workers participating in the observation study to elicit their attitudes towards waste. The results show that the subcontracted labour arrangement produced higher waste than the direct labour in all three work processes considered. A lack of organizational commitment and strategy was found to be the main barrier to waste reduction. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.