1.1 INTRODUCTION
Construction waste management plan (CWMP) is important in order to achieve a successful waste minimization in construction industry. The construction industry is one the major contributor to the development of our country Malaysia and in the world business because it provided the infrastructure and physical structure for the countries. Hence, the infrastructure gives a lot of benefits in terms of job opportunity and economic investment in a country.
Due to the high demand and development of constructions nowadays, construction industry is one of the main contributors of construction waste generation. According to Shen (2004), construction and demolition (C&D) waste can be understand as waste which generated from construction and demolition activities including land excavation, civil and building constructions, site clearance, roadwork, and other building activities.
In order to achieve a sustainable approach of construction waste management plan, some effective strategies must be planned aligned to the objectives. All of the parties involved in construction industry should play their own responsibilities so that the strategies planned for the construction waste management can be a success.
1.2 LITERATURE REVIEW
The developing of construction industries will enhance the growing demand for materials in construction industry cannot be fully met by the natural resources and energy consumption. Managing waste is one of the most challenging issue in fast developing world since the obstacles such as inadequate manpower, financial, machinery and regulations on CWMP which could polluted the environment (Kartam,2004).
Nowadays, most of the C&D waste will be disposed to the landfill and this will increase the landfill burden to be operated. The practice of minimizing the C&D waste are being taken into consideration and being implemented on site planning. An effective CWMP could give positive impacts to the environmental in term of carbon reduction and energy consumption regarding transportation, manufacturing during waste disposal.
A sustainable approach of CWMP in construction industry is a must since it can help in giving benefits to the social, economic and environmental aspects. The implementation of CWMP could be a success if the architect and other project team consider the CWMP at the planning and design stages of a construction. By doing this, it is believed that the waste which has been generated at sites could be minimized and the project will meet the sustainability goals.
A successful CWMP should involves all the parties which involve in the construction industry. The involvement of all the related parties during the early stage of the project will ensure the successful of the CWMP. The CWMP should be planned accordingly so that it will guide the contractors to practice good CWMP at the site and hence minimize the waste. The architect will play an important role at this stage because they will be highlighted the concerns in CWMP to the contractors.
In Malaysia, there are a few strategies that have been implemented in order to minimize the waste generation by the construction industry. Nowadays, the fast developing of buildings and infrastructures, the government have been paid attention to the Industrialized Building Systems (IBS) by Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). The IBS will be the another option to the conventional construction method nowadays.
There are some studies that have been carried out in order to identify the best practice of construction waste management and hence minimize the waste at an optimal level. We all know that the most volume of waste that has been produced is during the construction phase of a project. There are a few studies that has been carried out the show the production of waste during the planning, design, construction, handing over and operation phase (Asaari,2004). It can be said that, the waste minimization at site is being taken as low prioritized in the project planning. Hence, the strategies to ensure the successful of the CWMP must be proposed and implemented.
At the design stage, waste can be reduced if the design is being conducted effectively and uniformly. The prefabrication method can help a lot in reducing waste at sites since all the components are being manufactured at the factories. The works becomes more easily and time constraint can be reduced too. The sustainable approach during design stage is proven to have significant factor that can reduce the production of construction waste (Begum,2007). The structural and architectural works with the uniform design will help to reduce the cost and waste respectively.
2.0 DISCUSSION ON CASE STUDIES
2.1 Case Study 1: Strategies for construction waste management in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Minimizing the construction waste in Vietnam is important because it could reduce the environmental, financial and social impacts. According to Nguyen (2004), the technological development of Vietnam is still immature and this could be the reason the government do not have the capability to improve the waste management. Hence, the aim of this study is to propose waste management strategies for adoption in Vietnam’s construction industry. It was conducted in order to determine the barriers in implementing waste management and study the effective waste management practices in Vietnam. The study was being focused on the Vietnam’s local construction firms located in Ho Chi Minh involved both local and foreign organizations.
Based on the result of the study, there are a few challenges that had been faced by the construction industry players. The self-awareness of CWMP among clients are quite lower if compared to contractors at site. Study has been conducted and it can be said that the clients less concerns about the effectiveness of CWMP since they are concerned more on project cost compared to reducing environmental impact by applying effective waste management (Wong and Yip,2004). While at the site level, the less awareness among project teams, workers and subcontractors lead to higher waste generation at construction sites.
Table 1: The significant practices of construction waste management in Vietnam
Based on the Table 1, it can be said that good practices of construction waste management in Vietnam was not significantly practised. The most significant practise that have been adopted is supervision and inspection of subcontractors works under training and supervision category. From the survey, most of the construction management confirmed that they agree that training is very crucial among construction workers to enhance the waste management at sites. Lack of training and supervision in waste management suggests that the absence of those efforts to change worker’s attitudes. Poor attitude should be changed so that the project may gain the maximum benefit from waste management practices (Kulatunga,2006).
Table 2: Barriers in construction waste management in Vietnam
According to the result from the barriers that significantly affect the good practices of construction waste management, there are some recommendations or strategies that have been identified to improve the construction waste plan. All of the barriers that have been identified are listed in the Table 2. The strategies were recommended to comply all those four categories which are related with training and supervision, management of subcontractors and workforce, material handling and control, procurement and communication and documentation.
There are a lot of strategies that should be implemented. Firstly, the low level of self-awareness in construction waste practice at sites among the main contractors, subcontractors and workers totally affect the implementation of good practices. Hence the training (workmanship knowledge) and supervision (inspection and audit) are important to protect the works from damage. Besides, the government should provide the incentive programmes based on the performance reward system to be an effective waste management (McDonald and Smithers,1998).
Having a good material handling policies is a must in a construction projects. It is said that those practices are significant since less than 10 per cent materials that has been left at sites as a waste (Bossink and Brouwers,1996). The material must be stored at the proper place to avoid being exposed to extreme weather. For procurement, the issue is regarding the subcontractors are not always selected based on their waste management ability and the criterion of waste performance was being ignored (Ling and Lim,2002).
From this study, it can be said that many waste management practices which have been found to be effective were not significantly adopted. Hence, the level of success in implementing waste management strategies must be improved to achieve a sustainable approach in construction waste.
2.2 Case Study 2: Major obstacles to improving the performance of waste management in
China’s construction industry, China
The purpose of this study is to identify what are the main limitations of the CWMP in China construction industry as it is important at decision making and promote the waste management. In order to explore the strategies for waste management performance in China, this study was being carried out to understand the obstacles of the current waste management. This study is being reviewed on five major obstacles which are insufficient regulations, lack of well-developed waste recycling market, insufficient awareness about construction and demolition waste management, inadequate economic incentive and poor skills of operatives.
Table 3: Ranking of obstacles to construction & demolition waste management in China
Based on the surveyed that had been conducted, there are a few obstacles could be highlighted in order to promote the efficient strategies for construction waste management. According to Table 3, less growth of waste recycling market nominated as the first place as limitation to implement efficient CWMP. In China, although there are waste recycling programs had been conducted, typically by reducing the resources demand, lower down the cost on transportation, reserve some space areas for the future construction (Edwards,1999), the actual administration was still limited to be implemented. Currently, the wastes are being dumped illegally somewhere.
The second major obstacle that has been identified is insufficient regulations support. The support from government and authorities could make the CWMP is a success and effective (Gheewala, 2009). The China government should also play their role to enforced some related regulations so that the waste can be treated or disposed properly since waste extensively being illegally dumped in China (Yuan,2008).
All of the barriers above have been validated through this study and a few strategies for the improvement of CWMP. Firstly, they suggest that the construction waste can be reduce by the implementing the prefabrication method. The traditional method culture tend to promote or generate more waste if compared to prefabrication due to usage of timber for formworks and else. According to (Tam,2003), the prefabrication has been widely viewed as new building technology that contributes significantly to the reduction of construction and demolition waste.
Inadequate training and education for industry players that involve in waste management activities stresses the role of training and education in affecting the effectiveness of the waste management implementation. The training particularly to improve their construction skills, education and could help to raise their awareness about the importance of construction and demolition waste management. Proper training and education are strongly needed within the construction industry to facilitate the success implementation of waste management (Tam,2005).
For policies and regulation issue in China, the industrial experts suggest that government generally plays an important role in promoting the construction and demolition waste management practice by enforcing policies for the whole industry (Karavezyris,2007). Presently, most of the regulation that has been implemented in China mainly focused on solid waste management rather that construction waste (Yuan,2008). Hence, the consequences will result in poor execution of CWMP policy. Summarily, the government should be enforced specific regulation for C&D waste management to enhance a successful of construction waste management plan in China.
Figure 1: Framework for effective construction and demolition waste management
Based on the obstacles or problems that have been identified, the China government proposed several strategies to encounter the obstacles arise as shown in the Figure 1 as stated above.
The framework of the construction and demolition waste strategies focused on five major elements which are S1: Heightened awareness and adequate education, S2: Sufficient support of the authority, S3: Economic benefits, S4: Adequate incentive and S5: Improved site activity performance. These all five elements are being proposed correspond to the obstacles that has been identified.
The self-awareness and adequate education of construction waste management could improve the site activity performance and achieve a success in waste management plan of a project. Sufficient support of authority is the main factor of the successful implementation of C&D waste management in China. The government should play their roles to implementing the regulations for the construction waste in construction industry in order to minimize the impact to social, economic and even environmental aspects.
From this paper, the result that had been presented was prioritized to determine the solutions to encounter the obstacles in construction waste management implementation. The barriers related to the site activity need to be well managed to achieve an effective C&D waste management.
To achieve the successful of C&D waste management, all of the strategies that have been projected in this study must be involved all of the parties that involved in the construction industry. The clients, contractors, architects, engineers and other project team members should giving their full commitments in implementing the construction and demolition waste management.
CHAPTER 3.0: CONCLUSION
3.1 Conclusion
As the conclusion, most of the governments including Malaysia are increasingly proposed regulations and strategies that are intended to give impact on waste management practices, and many initiatives have been taken to tackle the construction waste management issues. The enforcement by government must be strictly applied to the policies that have been implemented. The government should be daring to take the legal action if there were contractors still dump their waste illegally and doing open burning at sites. The strict enforcement by giving penalties and suspend their license if necessary to do so.
According to the previous studies, the management of construction waste in Malaysia, China and Vietnam still not at a satisfactory standard. The reason being that the lack of continuous monitoring from government or authority to monitor the waste at sites. The government should take some efficient strategies to improve the current construction waste management policies that had been implemented. The best practices at site must be taken to minimize the generation of construction waste by the construction industry.
Other than that, the cooperation from all the parties such as contractors, developers, engineers, the stakeholders, publics and even government are necessary to ensure the successful of the CWMP in the future.