Evaluation of practical steel waste disposal techniques in Malaysian construction sites

Abstract

The construction industry is consuming substantial quantities of raw materials in processes, and it has a negative impact on the environment producing a huge amount of waste. Steel is one of the common wastes produced in the construction industry. These research paper analyses steel waste disposal techniques in the Malaysian construction sites related to environmental perspectives, and to sustain steel waste efficiently. The aim of this paper is to examine the practical disposal techniques of steel waste on construction using the 3R concept in terms of material sustainability. As many studies discussed by authors; hereby, a questionnaire methodology is effectively used and distributed randomly to evaluate the practical disposal techniques of steel waste on construction projects related to environmental indicators, in order to identify the techniques which, have the most capabilities to control and reduce waste on-site. The data has been analyzed using SPSS (statistical package for social science) software to decide whether the results meet our research objectives. The reduction technique which has the highest impact, and on the top of waste disposal hierarchy refer to the preliminary stages of a project estimating and stakeholder awareness of planning steel waste management, regarding that the results still unsatisfying. On the other hand, the results show that reusing technique in secondary stages of activities gave us a significant impact in minimizing CO2 emissions arising from steel waste produced on-site and a preferable option for the construction stakeholders rather than recycling techniques which include certain processes rising up CO2 emissions.