Management of waste from packaging of construction materials in building construction works

Abstract

Every material arriving at the construction site comes protected in some type of packaging, fundamentally cardboard, plastic or wood, and presently the great majority of these packagings finish in a container mixed with the rest of waste of the construction work. The increasing tendency to use prefabricated materials increases the volume of packaging necessary in product transport; in addition, the traditional materials also arrive more protected with packaging. A specific management for this kind of waste is analyzed on this article. The main problem packaging implies in a construction work is the volume it occupies; in the case of the plastic, the construction of a block of 100 houses generates more than 1,700 m3 of plastic waste, basically film to wrap the pallets, and a weight of 35 kg. This means that if traditional containers are used, these will transport a great amount of air. Recommendations for the management of the waste coming from plastics packaging includes the segregation at origin, trying to maintain the product packed until the last moment and immediately storing the packaging material once it has been opened. When there is space enough at the work site, containers of greater dimensions than the traditional ones can be used. These containers will be only for discarded plastic materials, and at the same time, compactors can be used to reduce the volume of plastics. Finally, once the container is filled up with the specific waste, it will be managed by an authorized valorizing agent, indicating the waste nature.