Investigating barriers to sustainable management of construction and demolition waste: the case of India

The generation of construction and demolition (C&D) waste is increasing, while management of it is a major issue which has detrimental effects on environment, economy and society. On the other side, there is increase in demand for construction materials which leads to depletion of natural resources. This highlights the need for sustainability in management of C&D waste; hence, factors that hinder sustainable C&D waste management (CDWM) have to be explored. This study aims to find the barriers for Sustainable CDWM, investigate the interrelationships among the barriers and to develop a conceptual framework in Indian context. From literature review, 48 barriers were identified which were categorized under six groups: People (PE), Top Management (TM), Process (PR), Legislation (LE), CDWM-Strategies and Technologies (ST) and Sustainable CDWM (SM). DEMATEL method was employed to examine the relationship among the barrier groups and results showed that TM and LE belong to cause-group while PE, PR and ST belong to effect-group. A conceptual framework was developed and validated by PLS-SEM (partial least squares-structural equation modeling) method. It was found that Legislation and Top Management have significant effect on overall Sustainable CDWM. An in-depth discussion on the barriers was done and the outcomes have practical implications for law-makers and all stakeholders involved in CDWM in India and other developing countries.