Categorization and Quantification of Construction Waste of Commercial Buildings in Iraq

Abstract

The construction sector has a significant and direct relationship with the development and growth of countries. Meanwhile, the population growth and the massive expansion of buildings and infrastructure projects keep up with living standards, generating more construction waste. Knowing the categorization for the CDW is very important to get better information about the waste and to have a proper plan to manage these wastes during the construction process. This study aims to categorize and quantify the CDW produced during the construction of a commercial building in Iraq, with a total floor area of 900 m2 (A three-story building with 300 m2 for each story). Data acquisition for this study took approximately two years. It concludes that soil waste represents 86.75% of total waste produced during the construction of the building, with the remaining 13.25 % mainly composed of brick (47.03%), followed by concrete (19.27%), mortar (10.65%), ceramics and marble (6.68%), gypsum (4.88%), steel (3.08%), wood (2.37%), and subbase (2.02%).