Waste control in South African construction projects

The construction industry contributes significantly to a country’s economy, but at the same time it tends to be a large contributor of waste generation. It is imperative that construction waste be controlled and managed effectively to reduce the negative impacts on the environment. There are various factors that cause waste, so this study aimed to determine these, and to understand the types of waste. A review of the literature indicates that the adoption of lean construction principles could play a positive role, so this was interrogated through a survey of construction managers on ten sites in the Gauteng region, the economic hub of South Africa. The most prevalent waste was found to be brick and concrete, attributed to the lack of skill of the subcontractors’ labour. The most common strategy to manage waste was through training and raising awareness. The two most common forms of lean waste were found to be defects and over-production, with the most prevalent lean tools being JIT and process mapping. The greatest challenges to the implementation of lean construction lie in poor supervisory capacity, low levels of skills in the labour force, cultural diversity in establishing levels of quality, late issue of information and shortage of material.