A Financial Evaluation through Waste Management of Construction Projects Located in Iran

In recent decades, the generation of construction and demolition (C&D) waste has become one of the global concerns. The act of urbanization increases a lot of C&D activities and as a consequence, generation of C&D waste would grow as well. Not only would this growth cause environmental damages, but it would also consume a huge amount of energy and money. Moreover, the lack of awareness about the quantity of wastes produced in C&D projects, is one of the critical reasons for? taking actions to deal with it properly. This study aims to practice a model of quantification for estimating the generated C&D wastes based on the materials that are used in a construction project. Moreover, since taking action on construction waste management is a phenomenon that needs a governmental support to be applicable, cost analyses have been applied in order to implement a penalty related to the wastes generated in construction sites. Additionally, a questionnaire survey has been prepared to be filled by construction managers in order for comparison with the mentioned model. The questionnaire would investigate how much the construction experts are aware of the amount of wastes which is produced in their projects. The bill of quantity related to 7 concrete and 4 steel skeleton projects has been collected respectively for the purposes of the study. The result of comparison mostly indicates that the professionals of the construction sites estimate the amount of waste generated in their projects lower than the amount which has been estimated by the main model of quantification. Also it has been revealed that the material most used in iv construction projects is concrete and consequently, the most wastes generated in C&D projects are cement, concrete and aggregates. Moreover, the statistical analysis shows a significant difference in usage of concrete in concrete and steel skeleton structures. Since the model of quantification is limited to the concrete skeleton structures, for better estimation of the penalty two different equations have been conducted based on the skeleton of the projects. Finally, investigation related to cost analysis of proper disposal shows that in Iran there is no cost for the action of recycling or proper disposing and the matter of transporting is the only factor which is needed to be estimated for implementation of the penalty. Keywords: Construction and demolition waste, construction waste management, construction project, estimation of waste, Iran