A study of waste management reality in construction projects in Iraq

Abstract EN

In spite of the growing efforts exerted by the construction industry to reduce the environmental impact of its operations, still the construction projects are a major source of pollution and have negative effects on the environment.

The negative effects include soil change, resource consumption, issues of transportation and emissions in the atmosphere, in addition its impacts on biodiversity, accidents, and the generation of waste.

This study aims to highlight the increasing problem of waste in construction projects in Iraq by knowing the quantities of waste, effects and methods of its management, by taking four construction projects as a case study and the conduct of a questionnaire survey for a sample of sixty engineers.

The results showed high waste percentage, showing that the brick material had the highest percentage having (13.5 – 16) %.

In addition, identified the main factors that cause generation of waste in construction projects such as a poor management and supervision, design mistakes, and etc., also showed there is no system for waste management in construction projects in Iraq with the lack of interest by the parties involved in the management of the project on subject of construction waste.