A study on the attitudes and behavioural influence of construction waste management in occupied Palestinian territory

Abstract

As a step towards comprehending what drives the management of construction waste in the occupied Palestinian territory, this paper quantifies construction waste generation and examines how the local contractors’ waste management attitudes and behaviour are influenced. Collection of data was based on a survey, carried out in the southern part of the West Bank between April and May 2010. The survey targeted contractors who specialized in the construction of buildings. A logistic regression model was used to investigate the relationship between various attributes and the attitudes and behaviour that the local contractors demonstrate towards waste management. The results showed that during the construction of buildings, 17 to 81 kg of construction waste are generated per square metre of building floor. Although the area of a building is the key factor determining 74.8% of the variation of construction waste generation, the employment of labour-intensive techniques in the study area means that human factors such as the contractor’s attitude and behaviour towards waste management, exert a key influence on waste generation. Attitudes towards the 3Rs of waste minimization and behaviour towards waste disposal are generally positive with smaller contractors exhibiting more positive attitudes and more satisfactory behaviour towards waste management. Overall, while contractors’ behaviour towards waste sorting and disposal tends to be more satisfactory among contractors who are more conscious about the potential environmental impacts of construction waste, it was generally observed that in the absence of a regulatory framework, the voluntary attitudes and behaviour among the local contractors are mostly driven by direct economic considerations.