**1. Introduction**

The population and economic growth due to urbanization have increased the amount of municipal waste, notably construction and demolition waste (C&DW) generated from increased demand for housing and municipal expansion [1]. This massive amount of C&DW creates environmental burdens, for example by depleting resources, reducing green space, and increasing air and land pollution and toxic waste discharge [2,3].

Consequently, the rapid increase in global urbanization has increased the demands placed upon the construction industry [4,5]. The construction industry now not only needs

**Citation:** Al-Otaibi, A.; Bowan, P.A.; Abdel daiem, M.M.; Said, N.; Ebohon, J.O.; Alabdullatief, A.; Al-Enazi, E.; Watts, G. Identifying the Barriers to Sustainable Management of Construction and Demolition Waste in Developed and Developing Countries. *Sustainability* **2022**, *14*, 7532. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su14137532

Academic Editors: Carlos Morón Fernández and Daniel Ferrández Vega

Received: 23 April 2022 Accepted: 13 June 2022 Published: 21 June 2022

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**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

to meet this increasing demand for urban spaces but also effectively address all the negative externalities associated with increased urbanization. This includes the large-scale clearance of agricultural land, high energy consumption, and rising environmental degradation [6]. The amount of C&DW generated by the industry is also increasing at a rapid rate. Globally, more than 10 billion tons of C&DW are produced every year [7,8]. The construction industry is seen as a major generator of waste and pollution, as waste from construction activities significantly pollutes the environment [8,9]. The proper management of this waste is a challenge in many countries, particularly developing countries. Moreover, construction projects in most developing countries have been characterized by poor performance in terms of sustainability [10]. C&DW mainly consists of inert and non-biodegradable materials such as concrete, plaster, wood, metal, broken tiles, bricks, and masonry [11]. In some parts of the world, the disposal of C&DW often creates additional hazards as it is disposed of indiscriminately and illegally on any available space, including on the shoulders of major roads [12].

Although the construction industry has a vital role in developing cities, its contribution to environmental degradation is widely acknowledged [13]. Infrastructural development can lead to significant C&DW generation if it is not designed and constructed sustainably. The C&DW is considered the largest waste flow worldwide, and has reached 30–40% of the total solid waste (SW) [14–16], for instance, the European construction sector produces 820 million tons of C&DW every year, which is around 46% of the total amount of SW generated in Europe [17]. Sustainable construction has become a focal point for countries worldwide, as the Earth's resources are under severe pressure due to increasing population and economic expansion. As a result of this, many countries are striving to implement sustainable construction practices in their construction industries [10].

Sustainable management of C&DW is therefore of paramount importance to mitigate and reduce the environmental impacts of C&DW. Thus, it takes into consideration reducing raw material consumption, reusing materials, appropriate recycling mechanisms, and minimizing waste generation from construction and demolition tasks [18]. Despite great previous efforts, the current practice in the construction industry is far from reaching the goals of sustainability to fully achieve sustainable construction. Recent research has shown that the construction industry requires significant transformation to fully implement sustainable practices to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals [1].

Understanding the barriers to sustainable development can promote the development of eco-friendly, socially harmless, and economically viable strategies [1]. Prior studies have assessed the barriers to sustainable construction and demolition waste management (C&DWM). Some studies showed that the economic concerns are the most influential in C&DWM from both governmental and institutional perspectives [18,19]. Negash et al. [1] found that the eliminating regulatory and social barriers can significantly enhance the performance of C&DWM. Also, Dong et al. [20] showed that the technical barriers areas are important due to the complexity of waste management; technical resources such as appropriate processes, procedures, and people are needed for waste management activities. Furthermore, Ghaffar et al. [21] emphasized that improvement in the regulatory system, social awareness, technical practices, and the development of waste infrastructure using innovation to treat waste are necessary to achieve sustainable C&DWM.

Therefore, this research contributes to provide qualitative information about the challenges and barriers to sustainable C&DWM and aims to investigate, identify, and rank the barriers to C&DWM. Effectively, the identifications of these barriers may help decision makers to develop the strategies required to mitigate them.

This study is organized as follows: Section 1 introduces the research; Section 2 is focused on literature reviews on the barriers to achieve sustainable C&DWM; Section 3 outlines the methodology used in this study including identification barriers and data analysis procedures; Section 4 presents and discusses the results including categorization of the construction industry, evaluation of the barriers to effective and sustainable C&DWM, suggestion solutions to tackle the barriers to effective sustainable C&DWM, and statistical

analysis for the obtained results; Section 5 states the main conclusions from the present study, summarizes limitations, and presents recommendations for future studies.
