Assessment of different construction and demolition waste management approaches

Abstract The waste generated from construction and demolition sites is considered one of the most irritating problems in Egypt. In the last 10 years some effort has been made toward solving this problem, the most outstanding is the newly issued Egyptian rating system “Green Pyramids Rating System”. It emphasizes on waste management and particularly “site provision and environment” which contributes to 75% of the management category score. However the traditional practice which is limited to dumping all the generated waste is still dominating. The absence of sustainable practices in construction sector in Egypt led to the lack in financial and environmental data. From strategic perspective, the research aims at developing a detailed procedure to evaluate two construction and demolition waste management approaches by means of Decision Matrix technique. A detailed study is introduced for the two approaches; for each approach a flow chart is developed to demonstrate its lifecycle, as well as the cost break down structure and the different stakeholders’ roles. A penetration discussion of the pros and cons for each approach was developed accordingly and came out with sixteen influencing attributes for both approaches. The previous steps paved the ground to construct a Decision Matrix to decide on one of the approaches from a strategic environmentally oriented perspective. The study relied on the detailed and deep demonstration of the two approaches to justify the assigned weight for attributes and scores for corresponding approach. From a strategic perspective, the decision came out in favor of the more environmentally friendly approach.