Impact of material waste management on construction cost of the projects in Sri Lankan construction industry

Material waste management plays an important role in the cost of a construction project. In Sri Lanka, inefficient material waste management significantly inflates project costs. Therefore, it is required to identify cost-significant inefficiencies in material waste management in Sri Lankan construction projects. Hence, this research carried out to identify cost-significant inefficiencies in material waste management in Sri Lankan construction projects. This research carried out a literature review which helped in findings the status of material waste management practices in construction projects. Mixed methods were adopted by combining qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The primary data for this study is collected through semi-structured interviews and questionnaire survey from the industrial experts purposely selected based on this research problem. The data collected were analyzed using manual content analysis and the Relative Importance Index method. As per this study, limited recycling facilities, design changes and variations and inefficient material handling are found out to be some of the major inefficiencies exist in the material waste management practices among building projects in Sri Lanka. This study further highlights inefficient design and planning process, insufficient regulations, inaccurate measurements and limited storage space as the major reasons for those inefficiencies. The best applicable strategies to overcome these inefficiencies were derived. Hence, this study highlights the major cost-significant inefficiencies in the material waste management practices specifically among the building projects in Sri Lanka, with the reasons for these inefficiencies and address on how to overcome these inefficiencies.