Construction and demolition waste management issues in building project life cycle stages: a case of Sri Lanka

Abstract

The construction industry is rapidly growing in Sri Lanka, leading to an increase in the amount of waste generated from building projects. This waste often ends up in landfills or is disposed of in an unorganised manner, causing environmental and health hazards. While there is a growing body of research on Construction & Demolition (C&D) Waste Management (WM) including Zero waste, there is lack of studies available on the management of WM issues according to the life cycle of building projects in Sri Lanka. Hence, this study aims to investigate the C&D WM issues in Sri Lanka according to the life cycle of building projects. The study adopts a qualitative approach that involves conducting two rounds of expert interviews following the Delphi method and using manual content analysis to analyse the collected data. According to building life cycle, WM issues are categorised as Preconstruction; Construction and Building Renovation; Use and Operate; Demolitions and Repurpose and Material Recovery and Production. The research is significant as it provides insight into the current issues of C&D WM in Sri Lanka and offers recommendations for improvement. By categorising the issues based on the different stages of the project life cycle, it becomes easier to identify where in the process the C&D WM issues are most prevalent and to develop targeted solutions to address them.