• Quantification of Construction Waste: Egypt Case Study

    S.M. Elgizawy1, K. Nassar1, S.M. El-Haggar2

    1.Department of Construction Engineering, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt

    2.Department of Mechanical Engineering, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt

    Abstract:

    As the world is shifting towards sustainability in construction, C&D waste quantity estimates will be of ultimate importance in seeking to determine the necessary capacity of the recycling facilities and for companies seeking to offer processing or recycling of recovered items. Assessing the right quantity of C&D waste is rather complex and many researches focused on providing reliable estimates to C&D waste generation rates.

    Currently in Egypt, despite the emerging interest in sustainability and efficient waste management, there is very limited research on the quantity of waste resulting from construction activities. Unfortunately, waste is still seen as an unfavorable byproduct of construction activities rather than an opportunity to benefit from.

    The study aims to assess the various quantification methodologies present in the literature highlighting the benefits and deficiencies in each of them. The study provides a construction waste analysis for two LEED certified projects in Egypt and two medium scale residential projects and assesses the Construction waste Index for all of them. The index obtained for the two LEED certified projects were about 0.025 t/m2 and 0.026 t/m2 whereas the index obtained for the medium scale projects was of 0.115 t/m2 in average. The CW index for this small to medium projects is 4 times as big as the ones calculated for large scale projects. The index analyzed for the different projects will help provide a basis for comparison for different types of projects in Egypt and facilitates the estimation and prediction of waste generation for future projects which in turn improves the process of waste management.

    Keywords: Construction Waste, Construction Waste Index (CWI), Waste Generation Rates, Waste in Egypt.

    Pages: 128 – 140 | Full PDF Paper