Root Causes of Construction Waste Generation Using Average Index and Factor Analysis Techniques

Abstract

Construction waste has been perceived as a crucial issue in the construction industry, which has critical implications for both the effectiveness of construction industry and the negative environmental effect. Root causes of construction waste generation plays a vital part in the management of construction system to control waste at site. This paper is aimed to identify the ranking of root causes and to classify the root causes into their respective categories using Factor Analysis approach. The opinions of construction practitioners on the 53 root causes of construction waste generation were collected using questionnaire survey. A total of 217 questionnaires were collected from construction practitioners who are based at site. The data analysis was carried out using Average Index and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) via Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The Average Index analysis determined the highest ranking root causes which is ‘lack of efficient site management’ with average index of 4.576. Next, EFA classified the 53 root causes into 5 categories namely design and documentation category’, ‘project management category’, ‘human resource category’, ‘material and equipment category’ and ‘external category’. The outcomes of the paper helps the construction practitioners to understand in depth about root causes which generates construction waste in Malaysia.