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Material Waste in Building Industry: Main Causes and Prevention |
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| Authors: | Carlos T. Formoso Lucio Soibelman Claudia De Cesare Eduardo L. Isatto |
| Affiliation: | 1Associate Professor, Building Innovation Research Group (NORIE), Federal Univ. of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Av. Osvaldo Aranha 99, 3° andar, CEP 90035-190, Porto Alegre-RS, Brazil. 2Assistant Professor, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 3129C Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory, 205 North Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL?61801. 3Property Taxation Advisor, Porto Alegre City Council; Visiting Lecturer, Building Innovation Research Group (NORIE), Federal Univ. of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Rua Siqueira Campos 1300, 4° andar (GS), Porto Alegre-RS, Brazil. 4Assistant Professor, Building Innovation Research Group (NORIE), Federal Univ. of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Av. Osvaldo Aranha 99, 3° andar, CEP?90035-190, Porto Alegre-RS, Brazil. |
| Abstract: | Material waste has been recognized as a major problem in the construction industry that has important implications both for the efficiency industry and for the environmental impact of construction projects. Moreover, waste measurement plays an important role in the management of production systems since it is an effective way to assess their performance, allowing areas of potential improvement to be pointed out. This paper describes the main results of two research studies carried out in Brazil that investigated the occurrence of material waste at 74 building sites located in different regions of that country. Some typical figures for the waste of some key construction materials are provided, and the main causes of waste in the sector are discussed. The results indicate that the waste of materials in the Brazilian building industry is fairly high and that a large variability in waste incidence is found across different projects. Most of this waste can be avoided by implementing inexpensive preventive measures, mostly related to managerial improvements. |
| Keywords: | Wastes Construction materials Buildings |