Barriers and Motivations for Construction Waste Reduction Practices in Costa Rica

Abstract

Low-and middle-income countries lag behind in research that is related to the construction industry and the waste problems that the sector is facing. Literature shows that waste reduction and recycling have received a continuous interest from researchers, but mainly from developed countries. Few reports from low-and middle-income countries are concerned about the reuse of masonry, concrete, and mortar in clay based building ceramics or recycling construction waste, but mostly in relation to concrete aggregates. Furthermore, few authors have described the major barriers and motivations for construction waste reduction. The objective of this paper is to report the findings on a research performed in Costa Rica with the objective to determine the barriers and motivations that the construction sector is facing to improve the management of the construction materials. The study is based on data collected in two phases. During the first phase, a survey was sent via e-mail to 419 main contractors registered at the School Federation of Engineers and Architects (CFIA). The second phase consisted of a focus group discussion with 49 professionals from the construction industry to analyse and validate the findings from the survey. Descriptive statistic methods helped to draw the conclusions. The result of the research is a comprehensive list of observed barriers and motivations for waste reduction practices in the construction sector. These are not only applicable to Costa Rica, but can be used as a guide for similar studies in other low-and middle-income countries.

Implementation Phase Safety System for Minimising Construction Project Waste

“…This factor ranked sixth for minimising waste in time and fourth in minimising cost overrun. This result agrees with the findings of previous studies [60]. The importance of this factor lies in its containment: (1) preventing working errors during construction, (2) selecting and providing skilled and experienced workers, (3) avoiding the bad behaviour of workers, (4) reducing the damage caused by workers, (5) adequate and well-trained workers, (6) quality assurance, (7) increasing the enthusiasm of workers, (8) avoiding inappropriate use of materials by workers, (9) good documentation of stored materials, (10) requiring workers to wear protective clothing, (11) increasing awareness of the workers, (12) avoiding overtime for workers, (13) providing breaks for workers, (14) providing insurance policy for workers throughout the project duration and (15) appropriate salary based on the nature and number of working hours.…”

“…CW is often clustered into physical (materials wastage) and non-physical (time and cost) overruns. CW includes rework, poor quality, bad planning for workers and any unacceptable form of work [14][15][16][58][59][60]. The main factors that generate CW are design or culture, procurement, handling and operation, as summarised in Figure 1 [18,61].…”

Construction Waste Audit in the Framework of Sustainable Waste Management in Construction Projects - Case Study

“…Many studies have described these effects from many points of view. Author Mahphour [13] summarized the potential barriers to moving toward circular economy in CDW management; authors of study [14] had focused on description of barriers in terms of waste management strategy; study [15] has divided the barriers into six groups -financial/economic, institutional, environmental, technical, socio-cultural and legal/policy. The summary of barriers to increase CDW recycling and re-using has been processed based on its analysis .…”

Determining Root Cause of Construction Waste Generation: A Global Context

“…This demonstrate the significance of this area in the economy of the nation. Construction waste generated from residential projects extends about 700 kg/m 2 [21].…”