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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Sustainable Design and Construction
Volume 11 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2025.1469398
This article is part of the Research Topic Integrated Infrastructure Sustainability Assessment and Reporting View all 3 articles
Enhancing sustainable waste management strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises: A focus on commercial refurbishment projects in the United Kingdom
Provisionally accepted- 1 University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom
- 2 University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom
With commercial refurbishment projects being identified as large contributors to landfill waste in the United Kingdom (UK), the aim of this paper is to identify effective Sustainable Waste Management strategies that could be implemented by Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) construction businesses, specifically within the commercial refurbishment sector. The study adopted a mixed method approach engaging industry professionals working within SMEs through both questionnaires and interviews. Findings showed that although SME businesses aspire to make improvements, the construction industry is not making clients and consultants equally accountable. However, some of the most effective tactics that could be employed were low cost and easy to implement but it seems that some SME businesses are still averse to them for mostly economic reasons suggesting for better enlightenment of collaborative procurement routes, implementing sustainability regulations and comprehensive engagement of SMEs by industry authorities; substantial improvements can be made in the realm of sustainable waste management.
Keywords: Construction, Construction waste management, Refurbishment, renovation, SME, sustainability, Waste Management
Received: 23 Jul 2024; Accepted: 20 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Garoghan, Adewumi, Ofetotse, Onyango and Dawodu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ayomikun Solomon Adewumi, University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom
Vincent Onyango, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom
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