EXPLORING CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR WASTE MANAGEMENT
IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS OF CHINA
Weisheng Lu
a
and Hongping Yuan
b,*
a
Department of Real Estate and Construction, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
b
Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung, Hom, Kowloon,
Hong Kong
Abstract
The enormous amount of construction activity in China associated with its rapid
economic development has produced a large amount of construction and demolition
(C&D) waste over the past three decades. The majority of this waste has not been well
processed, which has led to severe damage to the environment. Although there is clearly
a need for better C&D waste management (WM) in China, the best ways to achieve this
have yet to be fully explored. This paper is based on a study by the authors that aimed to
identify the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for C&D WM in China. A questionnaire
survey and 14 semi-structured interviews with practitioners, researchers and
government officials were conducted in Shenzhen, a leading city in southern China for
tackling C&D WM. Seven factors were identified as the CSFs for managing C&D waste:
(1) WM regulations, (2) Waste management system (WMS), (3) Awareness of C&D
WM, (4) Low-waste building technologies, (5) Fewer design changes, (6) Research &
Development in WM, and (7) Vocational training in WM. These CSFs can serve as
* Corresponding author: Tel.: +852 2766 4306 (Hong Kong).
E-mail address: hpyuan2005@gmail.com (H.P. Yuan)
valuable references for stakeholders to develop effective C&D WM strategies. The
research also adds to the knowledge on how to reduce adverse environmental impacts
caused by construction activities in rapidly developing economies.
Keywords: Construction and demolition waste, critical success factors, waste
management, construction projects, China
1. Introduction
Over the past thirty years, China has enjoyed exceptionally rapid economic growth,
achieving a GDP growth of up to 9.8% annually (NBS, 2007). However, in parallel with
this impressive economic development has been a severe degradation of China’s
environment caused in part by the large amount of waste generated by construction
activities associated with expanding urbanization and infrastructure programmes. Dong
et al. (2001) found that China produced approximately 30% of the world’s municipal
solid waste (MSW), and more recently Wang et al. (2008) found that amongst China’s
MSW, construction activities were responsible for nearly 40%, having consumed about
40% of total natural resources and around 40% of energy. The majority of that waste has
not been well processed, which has caused heavy ecological damage and environmental
pollution. Even though effective management of C&D waste in China’s fast-developing
construction sector is urgently needed, there has yet to be any substantial research into
ways to achieve this. There are not even any published statistics on the amount of C&D
construction waste at national or municipal level.
From the many factors that impact the effectiveness of WM, such as regulations
and technologies, this paper identifies the critical success factors (CSFs) for C&D WM
in China. Since China is such a big country with many different levels of economic
development, the CSFs developed in one region may not be suitable for others.
However, by focusing on Shenzhen as the most advanced city in terms of C&D WM in
Mainland China, findings are more likely to be relevant to other parts of China. The
remainder of the paper comprises four parts. The first part provides a general
introduction to C&D WM both worldwide and in China, the second part outlines the
research methodology used for identifying the CSFs, the third part analyses and
discusses the CSFs for C&D WM based on the questionnaire and interviews, and the
last part draws conclusions. It is anticipated that the identified CSFs will serve as
valuable references for stakeholders, including government departments, contractors,
clients and engineers, to use when devising effective C&D WM strategies. Findings
from the study will also contribute to the understanding of how to reduce the adverse
impact of construction activities in rapidly expanding economies.
2. Construction and demolition waste management
Whilst it significantly contributed to the economy of any country, the construction
industry has a negative impact on the natural environment. Construction by its nature is
not environmentally friendly as the various activities involved, such as excavation,
building and civil works, site clearance, demolition activities, road works, and building
renovation, generates a tremendous amount of C&D waste. (EPD, 1998; Shen, et al.,
2004; Tam and Tam, 2008). C&D waste is typically in the form of building debris,
rubble, earth, concrete, steel, timber and mixed site clearance material; it is often a
mixture of inert and organic materials. The United States (US) Environmental
Protection Agency (2002) estimated that approximately 136 million tons of
building-related C&D debris was generated in the US in 1996 - the majority from
demolition and renovation activities (48% and 44% respectively) In the United
Kingdom (UK) it was found that in the late nineties around 70 million tons of C&D
materials and soil ended up as waste and that the wastage rate in the UK construction
industry was as high as 10-15% (McGrath and Anderson, 2000). In Australia in the
mid-nineties, nearly one ton of solid waste was sent to landfill per person each year
(Reddrop and Ryan, 1997), and C&D waste was estimated to have accounted for 16% to
40% of all waste generated in that country (Bell, 1998). In Hong Kong, the annual
generation of C&D waste more than doubled in nine years from 1993, reaching 20
million tons in 2004 (Poon, 2007). Since the acceptance of sustainable development as a
desirable concept (WCED, 1987), the construction industry has taken measures to
alleviate its adverse impact on the environment so much so that C&D WM is now an
established discipline worldwide.
The research and practice of C&D WM can be best understood by putting it into a
spectrum ranging from hard technologies to soft management. For example, low level
technologies can be introduced to reduce C&D waste, such as using prefabrication
instead of in-situ. Also, new technologies have been developed to reuse and recycle, for
example, using recycled aggregates for different concrete applications (Poon and Chan,
2007). At the other end of this spectrum various managerial measures, such as
promoting best WM practices, have been developed to manage C&D waste based on the
view that it is a behavioral and social process. Using a process description approach,
Shen et al. (2004) examined the waste handling process during construction and
developed a good practice WM mapping model, while Jallion and Poon (2008)
examined the technical, managerial, and marketing aspects of prefabrication technology
in Hong Kong.
C&D WM research and practice have been guided by the 3Rs principle, which is
also known as the hierarchy of C&D WM. The 3Rs refer to the three desirable strategies
of reduce, reuse and recycle (Peng et al., 1997; Faniran and Caban, 1998; Tam and Tam,
