Construction waste management practices on-sites: A case study of Istanbul city

Abstract

Increasing construction activities put enormous stress on waste generation in Turkey. Therefore, to manage all theseconstruction wastes by setting effective waste management strategies becomes more significant day by day. Althoughthere is a rising interest in waste management issues, there are not enough studies in Turkey. The lack of data is aprominent obstacle for the researchers. Addressing this research gap, an explanatory multiple-case study wasconducted to reveal the waste management practices (waste generation, collection-sorting, storage-disposal, andrecovery) on-sites. Unstructured interviews were conducted with different 13 experts working at different constructionsites in Istanbul. According to the qualitative study results, there is usually no waste management plan on-sites. Projectrevisions and cutting of materials for sizing, storage problems are the most emphasized causes of waste on-sites. Wastesare mostly collected and disposed of by the contractors and there is a tendency to collect wastes in mixed on-site andlater partly sort. Collection-sorting and storage-disposal practices on-sites are affected by the quantity of waste, sitefacilities, storage opportunities, scale of the contractor and economic value of waste. The recovery facilities are mostlydepending on the economic gain to be obtained from waste. In this context, the recycling and reusing of steel waste isgiven the best importance. There are not enough networks for recovery of cardboard/paper-plastic wastes on-sites.There is no illegal dumping among the cases included in this study. However, awareness on special treatment ofhazardous wastes has not yet been developed enough on-sites in Turkey.