1280In the current study, how planning and truck-mixer based waste amounts per 1 m 3 fresh ready-mixed concrete (RMC) can be determined was presented. Toward this aim, the formation process of the fresh RMC waste in construction projects was first introduced in a detailed manner, together with an in-depth literature review in this specific domain of the construction engineering and management. Then, the measurement procedure of the waste amount or coefficient of the fresh RMC was revealed and discussed as a practical and creative planning knowledge. Hence, a useful and realistic waste management perspective about the cost and potential environmental savings of the RMC waste was drawn.
Fresh Ready-Mixed Concrete Waste in Construction Projects
IntroductionConstruction wastes not only affect the economy of a country, but also consume natural resources and pollute the environment for a very long term. According to Garvin (2004), 40-50% of the energy produced in the world and 16% of available water resources are consumed to produce construction materials defined as waste. CO2 that appears in the production process of such materials makes up 50% of the total CO2 emission in construction. Given the transportation of these material wastes, this share of 50% likely reaches up to 75%. In this environmental pollution and resource consumption, it should be noted that the cement manufacture plays an important role. In addition, construction wastes occupy large areas by volume. They have a share of approximately 20-40% of the total area occupied by wastes in the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, Japan, and European Union countries (Stokoe, Kwong & Lau, 1999;Kibert, 2000;Poon, 2007). This share can likely increase further if wastes are measured in weight (Mulheron, 1988;Hendriks & Pietersen, 2000). Today, the construction industry tries to deal with enormous amounts of wastes as they are very damaging to the environment. However, it is very hard to assert that the construction industry has generally constituted and improved its waste-based business culture so far. In order to reveal the current position of the construction industry as a whole in terms of types and amounts of construction wastes, it is inevitable that various types of estimates and plans on sub-sectors of the construction industry should be carried out.In this context, how planning and truck-mixer based waste amounts per 1 m 3 fresh ready-mixed concrete (RMC) can be determined was presented in the current paper as a part of an on-going research project. This is because, in a reinforced-concrete building project, concrete can have a big share of about 10% of the total project budget (Kazaz, Ulubeyli & Turker, 2004). Of course, these amounts can be single numbers or interval-based values. This decision can be based on a statistical analysis of the real world data. Thus, while preparing their proposals, construction contractors in general and quantity surveyors and cost managers in particular can better estimate the amount and cost of RMC by means of these numeri...