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Contractual obligations analysis for construction waste management

University of British Columbia

Construction industry creates a massive amount of waste which typically ends in landfills. Canadian construction industry generates 25% of the total municipal solid waste deposited in landfills. Construction and demolition (C&D) waste has created negative socioeconomic and environmental impacts including ground water contamination which accumulates toxicity to human/animal food chain, emission of greenhouse gases, and adding more to scarce landfills. Literature cited that construction waste can be generated due to deficiencies and loopholes of contract documents. Current research noted several clauses in the project manuals of commercial construction, which have potentials to generate construction waste during the project construction phase. Those clauses were categorised in to eight major areas. This research is intended to (1) analyse expert opinions collected through a questionnaire survey, (2) analyze on-site observations on waste generation in construction projects due to pre-identified contractual clauses, (3) evaluate contractual clauses of Canadian, American and Australian contractual agreements in terms of the potential for generating construction waste and (4) introduce suggestions for better contractual agreements to minimize/avoid construction waste. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Attribute Weighing Method (AWM) were utilized to evaluate and prioritize the expert opinions on contractual clauses in terms of waste generating potential. It was found that the clauses related to quality, workmanship, and field quality control / inspection have the most potential to generate construction waste.

Text

2011-10-25

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/38248

Civil Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/