Materials Waste in the Egyptian Construction Industry

Abstract

This paper addresses the incidence of material waste in the Egyptian Construction Industry. Construction material waste has proved to have a negative effect on the national economy and the environment. To evaluate the current practices, an in-depth study aiming to identify and quantify waste generation rates and their causes was conducted. A waste diagnostic survey was carried out on a sample of 35 top contractors. The contractors’ selection was based on their size of capital and experience according to the classification of the Egyptian Union for Building and Construction Contractors. The survey focused on the waste rates and causes of the most dominant materials influencing the projects’ costs. The study indicated that among the most fundamental causes of material waste were “Late information”, and “Changes to design”. A comparison between the local materials waste values in the Egyptian Industry and recently published international values was also carried out. This article is part of a Ph.D. thesis currently underway by the first author and supervised by the other two authors.