Influence of Labour Experience in the Generation of Construction Material Waste in the Sri Lankan Construction Industry

Gayani Karunasena (), Gayan Fernando, Dilogini Ashokkumar and Chunlu Liu
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Gayani Karunasena: School of Architecture and Built Environment, Deakin University, Geelong 3220, Australia
Gayan Fernando: JITF-KDESH Joint Venture, Nugegoda 10250, Sri Lanka
Dilogini Ashokkumar: Department of Facilities Management, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda 10400, Sri Lanka
Chunlu Liu: School of Architecture and Built Environment, Deakin University, Geelong 3220, Australia

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 6, 1-16

Abstract: The construction industry consumes a huge quantity of raw materials, some of which ends up as waste in the construction process. Among many factors, studies suggest that the inexperience of labour is one factor that generates construction material waste. However, an in-depth analysis of construction material waste generation concerning the different levels of labour experience has not been undertaken. Thus, this study investigates the influence of labour experience in the generation of brick and tile material waste in the Sri Lankan construction industry and, thereby, develops a model to predict average waste generation with respect to labour experience. Bricks and tiles were considered since they are identified as the materials most wasted in the Sri Lankan construction industry. To carry out this research, nine similar commercial projects under construction using bricks and tiles were selected from three large building construction organizations in Sri Lanka. Non-participant direct observations and unstructured interviews were adopted as data collection techniques. A simple arithmetical mean method was adopted to analyse material wastage and a scatter diagram was used to identify the correlation and regression to develop a prediction model. The findings revealed that, when labour experience increased, brick and tile wastage generation decreased, although there were slight fluctuations.

Keywords: bricks; construction industry; labour experience; construction material waste; tiles (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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