Materials Procurement Conceptual Framework for Minimising Waste in the Egyptian Construction Industry

The construction industry plays a crucial role in achieving the social and economic development of countries worldwide. However, construction projects are associated with materials waste, referred to as construction and demolition waste (CDW), generated at different stages of the construction process. In Egypt's particular case, the CDW problem has become a significant challenge, and the need to find sustainable solutions is overwhelming. Unfortunately, the Egyptian construction sector lacks a conceptual framework of materials procurement practices compounded by surrounding external factors of legislation, awareness measures, and culture & behaviour measures for CDW reduction (CDWR). Towards addressing the CDW problem, this study introduces a theoretical framework which was tested through a survey questionnaire distributed among a representative sample of Egyptian construction firms' total population. Through the survey questionnaire, this study was able to: (1) determine the current applicability and effectiveness levels of different CDWR factors’ components in the Egyptian construction sector; (2) examine the effect of different practices, legislation, culture & behaviour measures, and awareness measures on CDWR; and (3) develop and introduce a conceptual framework consisting of the CDWR factors along with their components. The overall contributions of this study include (1) presenting CDWR factors along with their components needed for overcoming the CDW problem in Egypt via a conceptual framework; (2) demonstrating the importance of waste-efficient materials procurement practices, a rarely explored research area, in tackling CDW problem; (3)
highlighting shortcomings in Egyptian CDWM legislation and the GPRS and proposing recommendations for their improvement; (4) encouraging more research on CDWM through waste-efficient materials procurement practices; and (5) promoting the application of the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique in the construction research domain in developing and introducing conceptual frameworks. Generally, a materials procurement conceptual framework to reduce CDW in the Egyptian construction sector is developed with recommendations and policy guidance for overcoming CDW problem in Egypt. While acknowledging issues of CDW can be country specific, it is expected that given the structural
similarity of African construction industry, findings from this study can be of benefits to other African countries other than Egypt contending CDWR issues.

This research programme was carried out in collaboration with the British University in Egypt (BUE).