Prefabrication as a mean of minimizing construction waste on site

Construction waste has become a major source of solid waste in Hong Kong. Thousands of tons of solid waste is produced every year from construction and demolition activities. Increasing generation of this waste has caused significant impacts on the environment and aroused public concerns. Therefore, minimization of construction waste has become a pressing issue. This paper aims to (i) reveal the status of construction waste, (ii) investigate the effectiveness of prefabrication in terms of waste reduction in replacing the traditional on-site production, (iii) examine the factors that help minimizing construction waste by the adopting prefabrication and (iv) explore the areas of waste reduction after adoption of prefabrication in comparison to traditional on-site production. The findings of a structured survey show that waste from ‘poor workmanship’ can be greatly reduced by adopting prefabrication in construction. Furthermore, after the adoption of prefabrication, waste generation can be greatly reduced in various on-site production activities, including plastering, timber formwork, concreting and reinforcement, with 100% waste reduction seen in plastering. Case studies are also used to demonstrate the effectiveness in the use of prefabrication to minimize construction waste in Hong Kong. It can be concluded that using prefabrication of building components is one of the most effective technologies of waste minimization.