CONSTRUCTION WASTE - QUANTIFICATION AND SOURCE EVALUATION

A significant part of waste generation is caused by the building and c onstruction industry. Reduction of construction waste is therefore a m ajor topic of the integrated chain management policy of the Dutch gove rnment. Construction companies benefit from reduced waste generation b y lower deposition costs and lower purchasing costs of virgin material s. An overview is presented of the main policy areas of the Dutch gove rnment concerning sustainability. Reducing the generation of construct ion waste fits into this policy. Subsequently, an overview is presente d from construction-waste data available in literature. Then, the wast e generation during several Dutch residential construction projects ha s been quantified and analyzed in detail. It follows that about 1-10% by weight of the purchased construction materials, depending on the ma terial, leave the site as waste. Furthermore, the analyses identify ad ditional sources of waste generation as those already known, such as a lack of attention paid to the sizes of the used products, lack of inf luence of contractors, and lack of knowledge about construction during design activities.