Circular economy and blockchain-integrated road map to improve construction waste management

Purpose The excessive waste generation in construction highlights the importance of efficient waste management (WM) practices by incorporating novel technologies and concepts. Blockchain (BC) technology outperforms traditional information systems in WM by enabling transparency, traceability and effective data sharing which are crucial for establishing a circular economy (CE) in the construction industry. Past studies have been carried out considering the integration of BC, WM and CE, yet the synergy of the simultaneous integration of these three concepts remains unaddressed. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the potential of converging BC with CE to improve WM in the construction industry. Design/methodology/approach The study followed a qualitative approach. A qualitative Delphi expert survey was conducted in 3 rounds with 18 experts in the fields of BC, CE and construction waste management (CWM). Fifty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the data were analysed using the content analysis method. Findings Integrating BC with CE to improve WM in construction was revealed to be possible using nine integration methods. Twenty enablers and 20 barriers were revealed and the applicability of these methods, enablers and barriers were separately identified for 8 WM practices in the construction industry. Originality/value In streamlining the link between BC and CE to improve CWM, a mind map framework was introduced to serve the industry with a detailed comprehension of how BC-enabled CE practices can be used to overcome the excessive waste generation of the construction industry.