Mumbai,as a rapidly growing megacity faces considerable challenges with its CDWM endeavours. This research is motivated by the unique context of the city, characterised by its highly fragmented construction industry in critical need of government interventions, to promote effective CDWM due to its fragmented, unorganised and competitive nature. This thesis explores the transitioning of the construction industry in Mumbai towards effective construction and demolition waste management (CDWM) from the perspective of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It seeks to identify the challenges faced by SME’s and propose strategies to enable them to meaningfully contribute to CDWM efforts.
Amixed methods approach was taken, beginning with a literature review to identify barriers and stakeholders involved in CDWM. This was followed by a comprehensive review of international case studies pertaining to Shenzhen, Singapore City and Hanoi to identify international best practices for compara
ble Asian contexts. Semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from Mumbai’s construction industry were conducted to adapt these identified solutions to Mumbai’s unique industry fabric. This was followed by the application of the Socio-Technical Systems (STS) theory framework to investigate the interplay of technical and social dimensions within their relevant environment. This leads to societal outcomes in the form of solutions for CDWM in Mumbai, steeped in its specific context using a phase wise approach.
The literature review revealed that the construction industry in India and by extension Mumbai suffers from; insufficient infrastructure, lack of knowledge and technology, lack of governmental incentives for CDWM,mindsetproblems, lack of enforcement, fragmented nature of the industry, supply chain issues and corruption as barriers towards the adoption of effective CDWM measures. Out of these barriers; the fragmented nature of the industry, lack of enforcement and corruption emerged as the key barriers that serve as stumbling blocks towards the adoption of effective CDWM. Studying international best practices through a case study approach provided solutions that can be divided in to 4 categories,
these are; strong governmental interventions, improving monitoring and enforcement, establishment of a thriving recycling market and improvements in infrastructure and technology.
These best practices were aligned to Mumbai’s unique context through stakeholder interviews and thematic analysis was conducted using the 4 dimensions of STS analysis as the themes. This allowed for the application of the STS theory framework to Mumbai’s construction industry, employing a phase-wise solution due to its suitability to transition projects and the requisite-prerequisite nature of some of the suggested measures. The solution is divided into 3 phases namely; Foundation and Preparatory Measures, Strengthening Implementation and Innovation and lastly Advancing Utilisation and Transition. These measures were suggested with the aim of transitioning Mumbai’s construction industry to largely eliminate illegal dumping, improve infrastructure and technology through collaborative research, improve quality of recycled materials, set up a thriving recycling market and introduce technical specifications for their use resulting in establishing material circularity in the industry. The final aim is for landfilling to be restricted purely to soil with all recyclable materials being recycled and processed to improve material circularity and reduce environmental impact of the construction industry in Mumbai.
The research also revealed that SME’s operating in Mumbai can be integrated positively into CDWM endeavors by improving the enforcement in the industry, providing incentives against punitive measures and enabling them to incorporate material circularity in projects without significant changes to their operating procedures. This cohesive solution, inclusive of all industry sectors, offers a means for the government to integrate, the historically challenging to organise SME sector into CDWM endeavors in Mumbai.