Evaluating Waste Management in UK Construction: A Research Report

This report delves into the critical issue of waste management within the UK construction industry. It begins by highlighting the significant environmental impact of construction waste, which accounts for a substantial portion of the total waste generated in the UK. The report emphasizes the importance of "designing out waste" as a proactive strategy to minimize waste generation throughout the construction lifecycle. It explores the waste management hierarchy and various strategies for waste reduction, including recycling, reuse, and efficient material utilization. The report also examines specific processes for waste management design, such as recycling and reuse of materials, storm water management, and operational waste segregation. Furthermore, it analyzes the application of designing out waste principles, including design for rescue and recovery, offsite construction, materials optimization, waste-efficient procurement, and deconstruction. The study sets out to recommend best design practices for handling waste in construction, focusing on the research methodology that includes positivism philosophy and will analyze the data collected. The report aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the concept, its applications, and its potential to improve the environmental sustainability of the construction sector.

Running head: RESEARCH METHODS
Research Methods
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction:................................................................................................................................3
2. Problem statement:......................................................................................................................4
3. Research aim:...............................................................................................................................4
4. Research objectives:....................................................................................................................4
5. Literature review:.........................................................................................................................5
5.1 Overview of the concept “Designing out waste”:..................................................................5
5.2 Process for waste management design:.................................................................................8
5.3 Application of the designing out waste principles:................................................................9
5.4 Literature gap:......................................................................................................................11
6. Research methodology:.............................................................................................................11
6.1 Research philosophy:...........................................................................................................11
6.2 Research approach:..............................................................................................................12
6.3 Research design:..................................................................................................................12
6.4 Data collection method:.......................................................................................................13
6.5 Data analysis method:..........................................................................................................13
7. Ethical guideline:.......................................................................................................................14
8. Summary of potential risks:.......................................................................................................15
9. Workplace/ Milestone:...............................................................................................................16

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10. Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................17
References:....................................................................................................................................18

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Topic: Designing Out Waste
1. Introduction:
Construction industry in UK is arguably the largest consumer of natural resources, as it
consumes around 400 million tonnes of material per year. Moreover, the construction industry
also responsible for around 20 million tonnes of construction, excavation and demolition waste
every year (Wang, Li and Tam 2014). Construction industry generates one third of total waste
arising in entire UK economy. Recent survey has estimated around 25 million tonnes of waste
ended up in landfill without any form of rescue or recovery (Schug et al. 2013). For that reason,
the entire industry is seeking for efficient use of materials in order to make a huge amount of
positive impact on the overall environmental condition of the economy. It would also help in
enhancing the overall economic efficiency of the construction sector within the UK economy. In
recent research, UK Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) have highlighted the
significance of proper designing structure for reducing waste massively. Number of design teams
and live projects has been conducted on the identification process of best quality design for
handling huge amount of waste in an appropriate manner. In this study, the focus will be on
assessing the way proper design help in handling all the waste associated with massive
construction projects. Presently, there is no clear-cut process of eliminating the adverse impact of
waste on overall environmental condition. The study will focus on developing clear aims and
objectives associated with the designing out waste concept for accomplishing all the research
goals appropriately. The study will also select best possible research methodology for capturing
relevant data about the research topic, which will help to add value to the overall quality of the
research project.

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2. Problem statement:
As per the article by Ekblom (2014), operational process of construction industry will
generate massive amount of waste on regular basis. Therefore, businesses will have to evaluate
the efficiency level of waste designing procedure in continues manner. The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has highlighted that demolition waste production has grown
dramatically over the past few decades, which also reflects high economic growth of the country.
The estimated waste production has risen from 3.8 million tonnes in 2001 to 17.8 million tonnes
in 2007 (Lehmann and Crocker 2013). Therefore, it has created serious question over the
efficiency level of waste designing process. The initial planning and design phases offer the best
opportunities to minimize or prevent the construction waste production in a major way.
However, with increasing pressure on construction industry, the efficiency level of existing
waste design is questionable. Furthermore, EU legislation has developed several strategies and
policies to assess the modernization of the waste management practices. For that reason, the
study would concentrate on evaluating available all types of waste designing process in order to
maintain the overall environmental condition.
3. Research aim:
The research study aims to highlight best possible modes or applications for designing
out waste within the construction industry.
4. Research objectives:
The objectives for carrying out research activity on designing out waste are as follows:

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 To highlight the significance of proper waste management structure within construction
sector
 To evaluate different aspect of designing out waste within the construction sector
 To assess different applications or patterns of waste management principles within the
construction sector in UK market
 To analyze the advantages or benefits of applying designing out waste principles on the
overall environmental condition in UK
 To recommend best possible design for the construction to handle huge amount of waste
in an efficient manner
5. Literature review:
5.1 Overview of the concept “Designing out waste”:
As illustrated by Nazari, Riahi and Bagheri (2012) any construction project needs to
evaluate the amount of resource required for covering all requirements in an appropriate manner.
Similarly, the construction sector has to evaluate their waste management hierarchy in order to
minimize the amount waste in an appropriate manner. The waste management hierarchy is
illustrated as follows:

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Figure 1: Waste management hierarchy
(Source: Elia, Gnoni and Tornese 2015)
According to Sundararajan (2013), proper evaluation of waste management hierarchy can
help construction designer to minimize the adverse impact of waste on the environmental
condition. The designing out waste concept has to use this waste hierarchy for reducing the waste
level in a significant manner. The effective utilization of materials minimizes the quantity of
materials required for any constructional project, which lowers the cost in a significant manner.
As stated by Yuan (2013) developing strategies to minimize waste is among the most prominent
ways to address waste related issues in construction. Thus, proper utilization of designing out
waste concept can actually allow construction sector to achieve sustainable efficiency. After the
successful placement of waste reduction measures, it will be easy for any construction
organization to recover, recycle and finally dispose waste in an appropriate way.

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Figure 2: Materials resource efficiency goals of construction sector
(Source: West, Matthews and Anderson 2013)
It highlighted the fact that waste designers can actually focus on enhancing the material
resource efficiency for handling all the waste in construction sector. It not only help construction
sector to handle all the waste but also helped to keep the cost of the project in an appropriate
manner (Storey et al. 2015). Proper reduction of quantity used is likely to create positive impact
on the overall efficiency level of designing out waste concept. Thus, the concept is primarily
referring to different strategies and policies that construction sector will use for handling massive
amount of waste in an appropriate manner.

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5.2 Process for waste management design:
As highlighted by Magnier, Thomann and Villeneuve (2012) waste management is
among the prime issues in UK, as it have to deal with more than 25 million tonnes of
construction sector waste per year. This huge amount of waste has created significant pressure on
the landfill procedure in UK. The overall landfill capacity of UK is becoming very limited with
time. Moreover, several governmental initiatives have created significant amount of pressure on
construction sector to reduce the waste as much as possible. For that reason, construction sector
organizations have focused on initiating several strategies for minimizing the adverse impact of
waste on overall environmental condition of the economy. Different process of reducing waste in
construction sector is illustrated as follows:
Recycling and reused:
As per the article by Chavan and Dhulap (2012) construction sector needs to focus on
reutilizing different types of construction materials like plywood, pipes and asphalt for reducing
the amount of materials required for fulfilling all the requirements in an appropriate way.
Moreover, steel can be melted for the manufacturing of different products. Utilization of
recycled steel product can reduce the energy required for the project by up to 72%. Similarly, the
construction project can also focus on utilizing the recycle process for different other products
like aluminium, gypsum, glass and other concrete product in an appropriate manner.
Storm water management:
Any construction site requires huge amount of water for cleaning, solvent and other
purposes. As a result, it often faces challenges in providing required amount of water in all the
constructional project area. Now, proper containment of storm water can provide constructional

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sector an alternative option to confront with the water related challenges. In addition, it also
allows constructional sector to create lesser amount of pressure for the drainage system as well.
Operational waste:
As highlighted by Curran and Williams (2012) construction organizations need to
segregate the disposable and non-disposable waste in an appropriate manner. Proper
identification of disposal waste can minimize the pressure on landfill process. On the other hand,
it also allows constructional sector to segregate the recycle possibilities of non-disposable
materials in an appropriate way.
5.3 Application of the designing out waste principles:
WRAP has highlighted five basic principles that constructional sector can adopt to reduce
the overall burden of waste in an appropriate manner. The five principles are illustrated as
follows:
Design for rescue and recovery:
Reutilization of material components can reduce the environmental waste burden from
constructional sector in a major way. This process begins with the proper analysis of the sites, as
it enhances the overall efficiency level of the operational procedure (An et al. 2012). Moreover,
it also allows organizations to include different existing materials, which reduces the overall
waste of any project.
Design for offsite construction:
Offsite production in the constructional sector can also bring major changes on the
overall operational procedure of any constructional project. Offsite construction reduces the

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necessary transport movements along with increasing health safety level on the constructional
site (Reiser 2014). Hence, it reduces the possibility of accident during any project in a significant
manner.
Design for materials optimization:
Material optimization is another important principle that allows construction sector to
reduce the overall waste level. This principle directly reduces excavation with the
standardization and simplification of the component and material choices. It also enhances
dimensional coordination within the constructional sector.
Design for waste efficient procurement:
As described by Kumar and Agarwal (2013) waste designers have considerable amount
of impact on the overall procedure. It provides detailed specification regarding the quantity of
materials required for covering all areas associated with the project. It also clarifies the waste
transportation procedure, which can create greater impact on environmental condition.
Design for deconstruction and flexibility:
This principle focuses on evaluating the best possible way to conduct deconstruction
procedure. With every deconstruction process, million tonnes of waste were created, which
eventually create more pressure on landfill procedure. This principle allows constructional
companies to segregate all the materials generated from the deconstruction project. Therefore, it
increases the reuse possibilities in a significant manner.

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5.4 Literature gap:
The above illustration has highlighted the significance of maintaining all the principles of
designing out waste concept. It has highlighted several alternative options to handle and reduce
the amount of waste generated from any constructional project. However, there is no clear-cut
indication regarding the best possible way to utilize all these procedure for reducing the adverse
impact on the environment. For that reason, the study will concentrate on covering all aspects
related with waste management procedure in order to accomplish all the research objectives.
6. Research methodology:
Research methodology refers to the process of selection appropriate methods for
assessing all areas associated with research topic. It includes factors like research philosophy,
approach and design that enhance the overall quality of the study. In order to evaluate the best
design for handling waste in construction sector, the study will concentrate on following
objectives:
6.1 Research philosophy:
Research philosophy refers to the nature, source and development of knowledge about
the research topic. As described by Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault (2015) research philosophy has
three parts including positivism, realism and interpretivism. In order to identify the best possible
way to handle waste in construction industry, the study will concentrate on positivism
philosophy. Now, the selection of positivism philosophy has consciously based on the nature of
research. Moreover, selection of positivism philosophy is likely to create positive impact on
judging all the observation in a major way. It would also help the project to include different fact