1. Introduction
Construction industry practices always have a significant negative influence on the environment. According to Poon, Yu [
1], the contribution of construction and demolition waste by building projects is significant. As a result, construction waste management has been in the spotlight over the years. There are many practices undertaken to control construction waste. However, Teo and Loosemore [
2] illustrated that there are two principles in waste management: reduction of the quantities of waste generated and adoption of an effective system for managing the unavoidable waste produced. In managing the unavoidable waste, there are three options in order of preference—namely, ‘reuse,’ ‘recycling’ or ‘disposal’ [
2]. The construction industry always uses these practices in construction waste management.
Construction debris resulting from construction and demolition work constitutes a large proportion of solid waste. In the United Kingdom, more than 50% of waste deposited in a typical landfill comes from construction [
3,
4,
5], while about 70 million tons of waste arise from construction and demolition activities [
6]. In Australia, about 17 million tons of waste are put into landfills each year and about 42% of waste is attributed to the construction industry [
7,
8] (Productivity Commission 2006, Udawatta et al. 2015). In the United States of America, around 29% of solid waste is from construction [
9,
10]. In Hong Kong, about 38% of solid waste comes from construction [
11,
12]. When considering the contribution of various materials to construction and demolition waste, waste generated from concrete is significant (see
Table 1). According to
Table 1, concrete generates 81.8% of construction and demolition waste, which is more than ten times higher than the second highest waste generating material. Further, when considering the sources of waste generation, construction demolition waste generated through concrete is once again significantly higher than any other waste generating source (see
Table 1). Therefore, when attempting to reduce waste generation, the main focus should be on concrete.
The treatment of municipal waste in Australia, compared with selected Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, is shown in
Table 2. According to the Productivity Commission [
11], there are many ways, adopted by various countries, to classify waste treatment. As an example, thermal treatment methods are used in Japan and in European countries to deal with high proportions of waste. However, this method has energy recovery and is therefore classified as recycling and not disposal. Due to these inconsistencies in classification and data collection for waste sources among countries, there are difficulties in comparing data. Therefore, only selected OECD countries are taken for comparison in
Table 2.
Citizen demands to increase the practice of sustainable development have led to the consideration and implementation of options to improve environmental practices in all industries including building and construction [
13,
14]. An effective contribution to embedding sustainability into companies’ systems with voluntary corporate initiatives has been suggested [
15]. Corporate social responsibility has been a pressing issue in the last few years and a corporate social responsibility indicator system for construction enterprises has been developed [
16]. Extended producer responsibility for vehicle remanufacturing has also been adopted [
17] (Wang and Chen 2011). There is no doubt that the effectiveness of variable charges is higher than that of fixed fees but the crucial question for local representatives is not effectiveness but the economy of charges in waste management [
18]. An overview of different methods of collection, transportation and treatment of municipal solid waste—as well as making a comparative analysis of municipal solid waste source-separated collection in China—had been analysed [
19]. According to Peng, Scorpio [
20] there are six hierarchical disposal options, from low to high—to reduce, reuse, recycle, compost, incinerate and landfill. However, all these disposal options need to be properly coordinated to reduce construction waste generation. According to Tam and Tam [
21], the most effective way is to implement all three—reuse, recycling and reduction—ways of dealing with construction materials in construction activities. Reuse refers to moving materials from one application to anotherPeng, Scorpio [
20]. Recycling refers to producing new materials out of waste, which not only fulfils the purpose of recycling but also generates economic benefits [
20]. The end of the demolition stage marks the end of the entire life cycle of green building.
Recycling, being one of the key strategies for the minimisation of waste, offers the following three benefits (Edwards 1999): (i) reduction in the demand for materials made from virgin resources; (ii) reduction in the use of energy to transport waste and produce virgin materials; and (iii) diversion of waste that would otherwise occupy landfill space. According to the Environmental Protection Agency [
22], building and demolition waste is twofold; unsegregated material that results from the demolition, erection, construction, refurbishment or alteration of buildings and the construction, replacement, repair or alteration of infrastructure development such as roads, tunnels, sewage, water, electricity, telecommunications and airports.
Sustainability methodologies adopted by the industry have been studied, including their eco-design and risk [
23]. Source reduction, reuse and recycling measures, waste collection frequency, staff participation in training programs and waste disposal methods were all found to affect attitudes toward waste management. Construction-related education among employees, contractor experience in construction works, source reduction measures, reuse of materials, waste disposal behaviour and attitudes toward waste management are found to be the most significant factors affecting contractor behaviour regarding waste management [
24] (AS 1141 1996). Waste prevention behaviour should be investigated separately from recycling behaviour and analysed in the context of local policies and measures [
25]. Although there are studies on waste management and recycling in construction, there are limited studies on attitudes and behaviour in these areas. Intentions to increase the level of recycling behaviour are greatly influenced by non-monetary motives such as attitudes and behavioural patterns [
26]. Similarly, according to Tam and Hao [
27], attitudes have a significant influence on construction waste recycling on site. According to Teo and Loosemore [
2], attitudes towards construction waste management are not negative, although they are pragmatic and impeded by perceptions of a lack of managerial commitment and therefore perceived as a low project priority and there is a lack of appropriate resources and incentives to support it.
Despite the significance of attitudes and behaviours towards construction waste recycling, there has been a considerable lack of research carried out on this subject. There have been significant research contributions on attitudes towards waste recycling in other disciplines such as electronic waste recycling [
28] and pro-environmental behaviour from university graduates [
29]. Pro-environmental behaviour refers to behaviour that minimizes negative impacts on the natural and built environment [
30]. Research on willingness to pay for household electrical and electronic equipment has also been conducted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia [
31]. The construction industry is considered a highly labour-intensive industry. Despite this, the waste management part of the equation has been ignored [
2]. After an extensive literature review, Yuan and Shen [
32] illustrated that construction and demolition waste recycling is one of the main research directions and further illustrated the research gap with regard to the human factors affecting construction waste management. Therefore, this paper investigates the attitudes and behaviour towards recycling habits in construction in order to understand how recycling is viewed and carried out by individuals working in the industry, to explain the causes of these states of mind and to formulate techniques that could be utilized to improve waste management and recycling acceptance within the industry as well as to improve its effectiveness.
2. Waste Recycling Attitudes and Behaviour
As illustrated in the previous section, there have been studies carried out on attitudes towards and behaviour around waste recycling in other disciplines. It is a known fact that attitudes and behaviours of people are highly subjective and capturing these to identify their influence on waste recycling is a challenging task. In a study to identify the behavioural determinants of construction waste management, Bakshan, Srour [
33] identified that behaviour is influenced by both personal and corporate factors. In the personal category, sub factors such as work experience, attitudes, awareness of consequences, past experience and social pressure were identified [
33]. Similarly, training, supervision and incentives were identified in the corporate category [
33]. Further, the behaviour category is constantly influenced by the personal and corporate categories and, in construction waste management, the behaviour category is more sensitive to changes in personal factors—such as attitude—compared to corporate factors—such as training [
33]. According to Arı and Yılmaz [
34], positive ideas, in terms of a person’s perceived behavioural control and the individuals in their immediate social surroundings—whose opinions they value—have a positive impact on guiding their recycling behaviour. Therefore, it can be illustrated that positive ideas about construction waste recycling generate good impacts on recycling in construction.
Illustrating the theory of planned behaviour, Ajzen [
35] emphasized behavioural intentions as a function of three components: attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control. According to Reference [
36], in simplified terms, attitudes refer to ‘the individual evaluation of the action under study from negative to positive’ and the ‘subjective norm corresponds to the degree of individual perception of the social desirability that the person should perform that action.’ Further, Reference [
36] (p. 184) defined ‘perceived behavioural control’ as ‘both measures of self-efficacy and perceived control and indicates how well an individual feels that he or she can overcome the obstacles, or taking advantage of the facilitators.’ Therefore, in terms of construction waste recycling perspectives, attitudes can be identified as people’s perceptions about whether recycling actions are positive or negative. Social desirability illustrates the extent to which a person will be involved in the process. As an example a construction worker may have a positive perception about categorizing waste as required, however that person might not actively be involved in that process any further. There is a positive relationship between the environmental concerns due to recycling and the attitude towards it [
37]. The theory of planned behaviour is considered by many researchers when conducting research in construction waste management and also in the waste management discipline as a whole [
2,
34,
36,
37,
38].
According to Barr, Ford [
39], recycling behaviour is based on three groups of factors—environmental values, situational variables and psychological variables. The first group relates to beliefs about the environment and the extent to which the recycling activity facilitates those beliefs. Situational variables are the factors that enable the recycling activity, such as prior knowledge and experience. Psychological variables refer to factors such as motivation, including social norms, response efficacy, self-efficacy, any perceived threat posed by not acting, personal satisfaction, altruism and citizenship. Reference [
40] further discussed this framework and concluded that the basic intention to act on recycling stems from an individual’s environmental beliefs but whether or not that behavioural intention proceeds to actual behaviour will depend upon the modifying effects of the situational and psychological factors.
Attitudinal factors have a significant influence on recycling behaviour. Sidique, Lupi [
41] identified four interpretable variables by which to analyse attitudinal behaviours—attitude, convenience, social pressures and familiarity. In their survey, Sidique, Lupi [
41] included statements such as ‘Recycling is a major way to reduce pollution’ to identify the attitudes of the respondents. Further, questionnaire statements relating to time for recycling and space represented the convenience variable and knowledge of, and familiarity with, recyclable materials and recycling facilities represented the familiarity variable [
41] (see
Appendix A).
When considering all these theories and frameworks, it is necessary to illustrate that individual attitudes towards waste recycling are significant. Further, the perceptions of society, such as the attitude of the working environment towards waste recycling, self-efficacy and convenience of recycling are identified by most of the frameworks both directly and indirectly.
3. Overview of Research and Hypothesis Development
Many studies have been carried out that focus on behavioural patterns, using the theory of planned behaviour [
2,
34,
36,
37,
38]. According to the theory of planned behaviour, human action is guided by behavioural beliefs, normative beliefs and control beliefs [
35]. Further, behavioural beliefs have either a favourable or unfavourable influence on attitudes towards behaviour, normative beliefs result in perceived social pressure or subjective norms and control beliefs give rise to perceived behavioural control [
35]. Therefore, attitudes toward the behaviour, subjective norms and perception of behavioural control lead to the formation of a behavioural intention. In summary, Ajzen [
35] illustrated that with more favourable attitudes, subjective norms and greater perceived control, a person’s intention to perform the behaviour in question becomes much stronger. This perception is further illustrated in
Figure 1 as follows.
As illustrated in
Figure 1, perceived behavioural control contributes to the behavioural intention. and behavioural control has a strong influence on the ultimate behaviour in question. Therefore, when developing
Figure 1, the horizontal arrow represents the collective influence behavioural intentions have on the behaviour and the vertical arrow represents the individual contribution of behavioural controls towards a particular behaviour. This Figure is developed considering the literature, especially the theory of planned behaviour presented by Ajzen [
35]. Similarly, Sidique, Lupi [
41] illustrated that attitudes and social pressure are the main variables for certain behaviours. As illustrated in the previous section, researchers such as Jekria and Daud [
37] identified attitudes and social beliefs as factors influencing behaviour and in construction waste recycling the same behavioural patterns can be identified. According to the theory of behaviour, perceived behavioural control always has a strong influence on behavioural intention and behaviour. In terms of construction waste recycling, there is a question of the management’s commitment to recycling. As an example, Teo and Loosemore [
2] illustrate that a lack of managerial commitment impedes construction waste practices. Based on this, it is possible to state that the supportiveness of recycling from the top level managers or employers in the construction industry is questionable. Therefore, positive attitudes, social beliefs and behavioural controls such as self-efficacy and the ability of individuals to overcome obstacles are of no use due to the lack of support from construction employers towards construction waste recycling. This lack of supportiveness of employers leads the industry towards lesser levels of recycling. Accordingly, the following hypotheses are proposed;
H1: Construction employees working for construction employers supporting construction waste recycling have a positive impact on attitudes towards construction waste recycling.
H2: Construction employees working for construction employers supporting construction waste recycling have a positive impact on subjective norms towards construction waste recycling.
H3: Construction employees working for construction employers supporting construction waste recycling have a positive impact on behavioural controls towards construction waste recycling.
5. Results and Analysis
From the questionnaire survey, about 10.8% of the respondents were developers, about 48.6% were consultants, about 12.2% were contractors, about 24.3% were subcontractors and about 4.1% were suppliers. These respondents can be considered a cross-section of the construction industry representing all the stakeholders.
The reliability of the data, which aims to investigate the attitudes and behaviour towards recycling habits in construction, is very high. All the reliability factors were acceptable, in which the alpha value exceeds 0.8 (refer
Table 4). This forms strong evidence to show that there is high reliability of the data, which can show validity to support the below discussions.
As illustrated in
Figure 2, the analysis was carried out in two main sections. Initially, the prevailing recycling behaviours and habits are discussed. In the latter section, the impact of employers’ supportiveness towards the behavioural intentions are explored using detailed statistical analysis.
5.1. Recycling Habits in the Construction Industry
From
Table 5, the survey results on the frequency that they do all that is needed to recycle at their workplace and the frequency that they recycle at their workplace are similar. Most of the respondents do a few times a week what is needed to recycle at their workplace (about 33.8% of the respondents) and also actually recycling at their workplace (about 37.8% of the respondents). Although the frequency is not very often for recycling at their workplace, the majority of the respondents (about 81.1% and 82.4%) are still preparing and actually recycling at their workplace respectively. This shows recycling is a well-supported action in construction.
According to the literature survey, it was established that familiarity with recycling facilities was one of the drivers for recycling. According to
Table 5, 44.6% of the respondents identified a particular location as a recycling place at the worksite. Therefore, the literature findings on using a familiar recycling facility as a driver for recycling, is strengthened by this higher response rate in
Table 5. However, it is illustrated that 40.5% of the respondents do not carry out recycle recycling activities during a specific time period of a day. The recycling activities are carried out mainly a few times a week (37.8%) and not within a given schedule. It is difficult for the construction workers to recycle at the same time of the day, which depends on the procedures of the construction activities. The interviewees highlighted the importance of setting up organized waste management plans. The combination of convenience and routines becomes imperative in achieving recycling success. This may be difficult to achieve with non-repetitive tasks and the uniqueness of a work environment but adjustments and compromises may provide an ideal setup that maximizes the potential to recycle. An interviewee pointed out that recycling is a common activity and may have developed as a routine for most of the organizations. The activity has gained widespread adoption within the industry to the point that it has been the standard. In general, it shows positive recycling activities happening at their workplace.
One of the interviewed contractors highlighted that different organizations will have different waste management culture, programs and procedures in controlling their waste management and recycling practices. Some would have stricter policies compared to others. Large-scale main contractors may consider recycling more than small-scale main contractors, as limited resources are available for small-scale contractors.
5.2. Employees’ Perception in Construction Waste Recycling
There are twelve questions in the questionnaire seeking employees’ perceptions of construction waste recycling (refer
Table 6). The survey results show positive perceptions of recycling from the respondents. The RII measure from 0.540 to 0.674 for the above twelve questions. The question, “It would require effort on my part not to do all that is needed to recycle at work” receives significant results from the F-statistics analysis among construction organizations. Construction organization 4 receives significantly high RII with about 0.761 in this question compared to the overall RII of about 0.540 from the survey results. The interviewees from this construction organization highlighted that the construction organization is a very divest organization for public and private clients and also for different types of infrastructure projects. They have been educated in the implementation of recycling as part of their routines in their work. The site environment did not provide huge normal waste bins. The organization believes that most of the waste generated by the site is recyclable, different types of recyclable materials are encouraged to put in different recycling bins and leave only small amounts of unrecyclable materials are in the normal waste bins. The results of the other eleven questions can also be reflected by this culture developed in construction organization 4 with relatively higher RII than other construction organizations.
If the construction organizations educate the employees with better work habit, routines and operating procedures similar as the examples shown above from the construction organization 4, the recycling outcomes can significantly be improved in the industry. One of the interviewees argued that site construction is not usually repetitive and locations often change. There are difficulties in establishing a habit, routine or procedure for recycling. Another interviewee explained that it should be taken into account that workers are pushed to try to do as much work as possible in the site environment, this makes it difficult to provide any time-consuming activities such as waste sorting on site. This may have made workers lost the awkward feeling through the convenience received by taking the easier option but it is impressive to know that an equilibrium still exists and when recycling difficulties are overcome, changes in perceptions will be possible.
5.3. Routines and Operating Procedures Related to Recycling in Construction
Seven major types of construction and demolition waste are studied in the survey in terms of frequency of recycling: (1) Concrete; (2) Brick; (3) Timber; (4) Plastic; (5) Metal; (6) Glass; and (7) Paper. It is not surprising to find that metal is the most common type of construction and demolition waste for recycling with an RII of about 0.656 from the survey results (refer
Table 7). The interviewees explained that recycling metal can provide profit for the construction organization, all organizations are trying to recycle every single piece of metal from construction and demolished waste. Recycling metal is receiving significant results from the F-statistic among positions. The contractors and suppliers are receiving relatively low RII of about 0.286 and 0.333 respectively comparing to the overall RII of about 0.656 from the survey results. An interviewee pointed out that it is not understandable why contractors and suppliers are not putting recycling metal as their major priority. An interviewed contractor explained that recycling metal can gain profit for their projects; however, collecting metal waste requires crushing demolished concrete and manual sorting. In the tight timeframe of construction and demolition projects, some construction organizations are not putting a lot of efforts in recycling metals. Finishing their projects within the required timeframe is still the first priority, otherwise, the construction organizations still need to pay for the late completion penalty, in which it cannot be offset by the profit gained from recycling metal.
For the survey result on “For me to recycle at work is difficult” receives a lower RII of about 0.539 than the survey results on “I want to recycle at my workplace”, “I intend to recycle at my workplace,” “I plan to recycle at work” and “I will recycle at my workplace” with the RII of about 0.683, 0.680, 0.649 and 0.670 respectively (refer
Table 7). This shows that the respondents are eager to recycle but seem have some burdens at their workplace for effective recycling. The interviewees pointed out that meeting tight construction timeframe and construction budget are always the first two priorities in every construction project. The companies have to put environmental protection as a minor priority, which affect their effectiveness in recycling. Large-scale organizations may be better in the implementation of waste management plan due to the economies of scale and the ability to delegate specific staff for the tasks. This leads to better refined recycling methods and the benefits of the companies. Although small-scale organizations will need to concern on their budget at their first priority. The interviewees pointed out that they are willing to recycle as the recent promotion of global warming and climate change issues, in which they are aware of it. The comparatively higher RII on the survey results on want and intend to recycle than the survey results on plan and will recycle at their workplace shows that the respondents are highly inclined to recycle but holds a wait-and-see attitude. The lack of self-initiative to recycle might be the cause of this. In general, the industry remains positive on the willingness in recycling.
5.4. One Way ANOVA between Different Construction Organisations
In the construction industry, there are different construction organisations involved in different capacities. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the perception towards recycling among those different organisations. As illustrated earlier in this research the data were collected from six different organisations with varying capacities. These six organisations were then tested with a one-way ANOVA to analyse whether there are any significant differences in recycling attitudes and behaviours. The data are reported in
Table 8.
In general, when Sig ≤ 0.05, it is considered that there is a significant difference of the perceptions between different organisations, otherwise all the organisations are reasonably consistent in their perceptions on the importance of a specific variable. According to
Table 8, all the values are greater than 0.05. Therefore, it is necessary to conclude that the behaviours and attitudes towards recycling does not change among different positions within the construction industry.
5.5. Analysis on Employers’ Supportiveness towards the Attitudes, Subjective Norm and Behavioural Control of Construction Waste Recycling
Principal component analysis is used to explore the dimensions of three measurement scales for attitudes, subjective norms and behavioural control. The study recorded KMO values of 0.822, 0.651 and 0.865 for measurement scales of attitudes, subjective norms and behavioural control respectively which makes the factors highly suitable for the study (refer
Table 8).
Table 9 illustrates the details of principal component analysis and the figures show that all the three scales have a clear structure with only one extracted factor. The total variation for attitudes, subjective norms and behavioural control is 78.876%, 69.951% and 75.922% respectively.
After the factor extraction, a bivariate correlation is conducted between attitudes, subjective norms, behavioural controls and employers’ supportiveness. Further, the type of organization is also included in the correlation matrix to analyse whether there are any changes to recycling behaviour in different organisations. Results of bivariate correlations are tabulated in
Table 9.
The correlation results show that at 0.001 level of significance controlled behaviour and subjective norms are positively correlated (refer
Table 10). Further there is a negative correlation between employer supportiveness and subjective norms and controlled behaviour. However, the type of organisation does not have any significant correlation with any of the variable. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the behavioural intentions towards construction waste recycling do not change irrespective of the type of organisation such as a consultant, contractor or a developer.
The impact employer supportiveness towards the attitude is insignificant according to the bivariate correlations (refer
Table 11). Therefore, H1 is not supported. One possible explanation for this is that the attitude towards construction waste recycling is a personal norm. Therefore, it is not challenged by the employers’ supportiveness towards recycling. Similarly, according to Bakshan, Srour [
34], attitudes are personal in nature and falls under personal factors influencing the recycling behaviour. However, if attitude towards construction waste recycling needs to be enhanced then positive personal beliefs towards recycling must be cultivated through personal training and workshops.
Contrary to the prediction, the impact employer supportiveness towards subjective norms and controlled behaviour shows a significant negative correlation. Therefore, both H2 and H3 are also not supported. One possible reason for this is that if the employers lay down strict procedures on waste recycling the construction professionals might take it as an additional work. As a result, construction waste recycling is carried out as a part and parcel of the job description. Since the professionals are working according to the laid rules and regulations there is no requirement for them to overcome obstacles and further develop the recycling process. In such a situation, construction professionals are neutral towards the social perception towards construction waste recycling as well.
It is interesting to note that there is an inconsistency high frequency of recycling at work (refer
Table 5) and negative subjective norm of people around the respondent who don’t recycle (refer
Table 11). The main reason for this is, each and every respondent contributes to recycling but it is not communicated among each other. The organisations selected for the study always supported recycling and the organisations have rules and regulations governing recycling. However, there is no recycling culture within these organisations so that the employees can collectively engage in recycling practices.
The interviewees also explained that following the important people or valuable people on site for young workers is a suitable education approach as the young people may not have enough experience and knowledge for proper recycling on site and not affecting the construction progress. This can also provide the importance of peer effect and shows a positive outlook on recycling and may be a source of encouragement. An interviewee from the construction organization 6 highlighted that although the organization is a small-scale main contractor, the employees have complete control and can be in charge of any new innovative approaches for recycling. They also have regular weekly meetings for discussing any possible approaches or suggestions for improving recycling rates on site.
6. Discussion
Based on the above analysis and discussions with the interviewees, the following recommendations are suggested to improve the attitude and behaviour towards recycling habits.
6.1. Legislation and Market Driven
The development of driving forces would eventually lead to eventual improvement of behaviour. The development of these driving forces could be done by: (1) Legislation driven: Initiative provided by legislation to make recycling compulsory both as a waste management process and as a market source of materials. For example, if recycling is made compulsory in the casting of precast concrete barriers, then market would respond to these requirements. This is an artificial way of creating demand, which is needed for an industry to thrive. On the other side, if recycling is made mandatory with government inspections to site compliance, then all sites would have proper waste management implementations, only then recycling will not be seen as an option but as a requirement; and (2) Market driven: If market has created a demand through a competitive product by quality or by price, interest on such products will increase. This will accelerate the growth of industries to provide for demand and this would also create a demand for salvageable materials thus the industry will improve collection and recycling efficiency. The focus is best aimed in developing ways that will provide seamless transition of the newer methods to currently performed processes. This will keep resistance to change minimal, lower requirements for training and faster transition.
6.2. Improvements of Waste Management Methods
Proper waste management should begin early in the design process. In this manner, many variables could be set up, simulated and adjusted before cost implications. This is not only cheaper but also saves time. The more beneficial feature early consideration would be in the first two upper processes in the construction and demolition waste hierarchy namely “avoid” and “reduce.” Because the design specifies the type of materials to be used, potential waste could be avoided and more efficient processes could be employed. The use of standard, modular or prefabricated components may improve waste reduction while also reducing cost. Other method is to specify use of materials that could have better properties for recycling and preserve the material homogeneity for the building life span and make recycling easier after the structure’s life span. The themes in this area would be to avoid and reduce the amount of waste then provide ground work for easier and more efficient recycling during the construction phase with a clear routine and operating procedures developed in the organizations.
6.3. Provisions in Work Method Statement
Recycling is considered as a part of site decorum and not usually treated as a formal task. The implementation of recycling in a contractor’s work method statement allows more official treatment of the process. This should also be in the case for subcontractors and suppliers, where strict adherence to regulations will be implemented and the work method statement is part of the agreement. Formalizing recycling will create a more serious view of the task resulting in more conformity and legal bound sanctions.
6.4. Share Research and Applications in Sub-Industries
The implementation of a generic process will not be able to address the unique characteristics of the construction industry. With economic downturns affecting all, the option of investing on research and development become an unattractive proposition. This results in difficulty in improving current status and likelihood in investments in the concept. The more appealing path would be to merge resources from different organizations in the effort of research and development. This could be done as a sub-industry consortium among organizations with nearly the same expertise. For example, landscaping specialist contractors could merge in studying methods of improving recycling. In this manner, the recycling methods developed become sectarian and more suited to their sub-industries.
6.5. Developing Communication among Employees
According to the analysis, even though the individuals are involved in recycling practices, these are not communicated to other colleagues. Therefore, it is necessary to develop communication among employees to discuss about recycling practices among each other. Further, the organisations can organize workshops to exhibit the recycling practices carried out by various individuals.