Waste Management for Sustainability in the Built Environment

Abstract

Wastes are unwanted, undesirable, or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use or may be worthless, defective, and regarded as having little or no use. A by-product and, by contrast, a joint product of relatively minor economic value. Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste, namely preservation, recycling, and reuse from its collection point to its final disposal. Waste generated from construction sites is not supposed to constitute problems for the built environment. Sustainable construction waste management is becoming a reality because of increased awareness and education to reduce/recycle/reuse wastes, provision of collection and recycling points, and improved techniques for reusing construction materials. This chapter will focus on reducing, reusing, recycling, and recovery efforts or the 4R waste management approach for a sustainable built environment. This chapter also describes waste management practices, their benefits, and the effect of prefabricated constructions and mass customization design approaches on waste reduction or control.