scholarly journals Is Recycling Always the Best Option? Environmental Assessment of Recycling of Seashell as Aggregates in Noise Barriers

Processes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 776
Author(s):  
Begoña Peceño ◽  
Carlos Leiva ◽  
Bernabé Alonso-Fariñas ◽  
Alejandro Gallego-Schmid
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Waste Recycling ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Recycling Process ◽  
Noise Barriers ◽  
Noise Barrier ◽  
Pre Treatment ◽  
Natural Aggregates

Waste recycling is an essential part of waste management. The concrete industry allows the use of large quantities of waste as a substitute for a conventional raw material without sacrificing the technical properties of the product. From a circular economy point of view, this is an excellent opportunity for waste recycling. Nevertheless, in some cases, the recycling process can be undesirable because it does not involve a net saving in resource consumption or other environmental impacts when compared to the conventional production process. In this study, the environmental performance of conventional absorption porous barriers, composed of 86 wt % of natural aggregates and 14 wt % cement, was compared with barriers composed of 80 wt % seashell waste and 20 wt % cement through an attributional cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment. The results show that, for the 11 environmental impact categories considered, the substitution of the natural aggregates with seashell waste involves higher environmental impacts, between 32% and 267%. These results are justified by the high contribution to these impacts of the seashell waste pre-treatment and the higher cement consumption. Therefore, the recycling of seashells in noise barrier manufacturing is not justified from an environmental standpoint with the current conditions. In this sense, it could be concluded that life cycle assessments should be carried out simultaneously with the technical development of the recycling process to ensure a sustainable solution.

Introduction to an Approach to Performing Sustainability Quantification of Concrete Structures

2018 ◽  
Vol 272 ◽  
pp. 273-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Břetislav Teplý ◽  
Tomáš Vymazal ◽  
Pavla Rovnaníková
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
Waste Recycling ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Load Bearing Capacity ◽  
Sustainability Management ◽  
The World ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

Efficient sustainability management requires the use of tools that enable the quantification, measurement or comparison of material, technological and construction variants. Tools of this kind which have been developed around the world in recent years include various indicators, indexes, etc. Generally, technical, economic, ecological and socio-cultural areas must all be included. Such a tool can be used as a powerful marketing aid and as support for the transition to the “circular economy”. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) procedures are also used, alongside other approaches. LCA is a method that evaluates the life cycle of a structure from the point of view of its effect on the environment. Processes starting with the mining of mineral resources and including their transport, production and use up to their final processing as waste (recycling) are all taken into account. In addition, consideration is given to energy and raw material costs, and to environmental impact throughout the whole life cycle – e.g. through emissions. The presented contribution focuses on the quantification of sustainability connected with the use of various types of concrete with regard to their resistance against the effect of degrading influences. Sustainability factors are also determined using information regarding service life and “eco-costs”. The aim is to present a suitable methodology which can simplify decision-making concerning the design and choice of concrete mixes from a wider perspective, i.e. not only from the aspects of load-bearing capacity or durability.

scholarly journals Methodology for the quantification of concrete sustainability

2018 ◽  
Vol 174 ◽  
pp. 01006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Břetislav Teplý ◽  
Tomáš Vymazal ◽  
Pavla Rovnaníková
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Service Life ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Load Bearing Capacity ◽  
Sustainability Management

Efficient sustainability management requires the use of tools which allow material, technological and construction variants to be quantified, measured or compared. These tools can be used as a powerful marketing aid and as support for the transition to “circular economy”. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) procedures are also used, aside from other approaches. LCA is a method that evaluates the life cycle of a structure from the point of view of its impact on the environment. Consideration is given also to energy and raw material costs, as well as to environmental impact throughout the life cycle - e.g. due to emissions. The paper focuses on the quantification of sustainability connected with the use of various types of concrete with regard to their resistance to degradation. Sustainability coefficients are determined using information regarding service life and "eco-costs". The aim is to propose a suitable methodology which can simplify decision-making in the design and choice of concrete mixes from a wider perspective, i.e. not only with regard to load-bearing capacity or durability.

scholarly journals Reuse of Barley Straw for Handmade Paper Production

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alma Delia Delia Román Gutiérrez ◽  
Juan Hernandez Avila ◽  
Antonia Karina Vargas M. ◽  
Eduardo Cerecedo Saenz ◽  
Eleazar Salinas-Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Waste Treatment ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Barley Straw ◽  
Handmade Paper ◽  
Organic Solid Waste ◽  
Organic Solid ◽  
Spent Grain

Usually in the manufacture of beer by fermentation of barley, in both industrialized and developing countries significant amounts of organic solid waste are produced from barley straw. These possibly have an impact on the carbon footprint with an effect on global warming. According to this, it is important to reduce environmental impact of these solid residues, and an adequate way is the recycling using them as raw material for the elaboration of handmade paper. Therefore, it is required to manage this type of waste by analyzing the environmental impact, and thus be able to identify sustainable practices for the treatment of this food waste, evaluating its life cycle, which is a useful methodology to estimate said environmental impacts. It is because of this work shows the main results obtained using the life cycle analysis (LCA) methodology, to evaluate the possible environmental impacts during the waste treatment of a brewery located in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico. The residues evaluated were barley straw, malt residues and spent grain, and at the end, barley straw was selected to determine in detail its environmental impact and its reuse, the sheets analyzed presented a grammage that varies from 66 g/m2 and 143 g/m2, resistance to burst was 117 to 145 kpa, with a crystallinity of 34.4% to 37.1%.

scholarly journals Potential Utilization of Sewage Sludge from Water Treatment Plant as Brick Material

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 05001
Author(s):  
Budi Prasetyo Samadikun ◽  
Siti Rukayah ◽  
Ika Bagus Priyambada ◽  
Sry T. Romaito Lumbantobing ◽  
Mochamad Arief Budihardjo
Keyword(s):  
Water Treatment ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Water Treatment Plant ◽  
Waste Recycling ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Recycling Process ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Water Treatment Process ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Sludge Waste

One of the results of the water treatment process is the sludge. Generally, the processed sludge from the water treatment is collected and delivered to a landfil. With the delivery of sludge waste, it requires additional cost as a levy in handling sludge waste. Therefore, it is needed to innovate on the recycling of sludge. The waste recycling process is expected to minimize the residual impact of the Water Treatment Plant. The process of waste recycling can be done by utilizing sludge from water treatment, which is brick making process. The benefits can eliminate environmental problems and also some economic problems. This study aims to determine the potential of sludge from water treatment plant to be added for brick making by investigating the physical and characteristics of sludge. The research findings show that sludge waste has the potential to become a brick raw material depending on the nature and clay microstructure

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Valuation of Biochar Production: Two Case Studies in Belgium

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 2166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Rajabi Hamedani ◽  
Tom Kuppens ◽  
Robert Malina ◽  
Enrico Bocci ◽  
Andrea Colantoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Pig Manure ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Life Cycle Perspective ◽  
The Impact

It is unclear whether the production of biochar is economically feasible. As a consequence, firms do not often invest in biochar production plants. However, biochar production and application might be desirable from a societal perspective as it might entail net environmental benefits. Hence, the aim of this work has been to assess and monetize the environmental impacts of biochar production systems so that the environmental aspects can be integrated with the economic and social ones later on to quantify the total return for society. Therefore, a life cycle analysis (LCA) has been performed for two potential biochar production systems in Belgium based on two different feedstocks: (i) willow and (ii) pig manure. First, the environmental impacts of the two biochar production systems are assessed from a life cycle perspective, assuming one ton of biochar as the functional unit. Therefore, LCA using SimaPro software has been performed both on the midpoint and endpoint level. Biochar production from willow achieves better results compared to biochar from pig manure for all environmental impact categories considered. In a second step, monetary valuation has been applied to the LCA results in order to weigh environmental benefits against environmental costs using the Ecotax, Ecovalue, and Stepwise approach. Consequently, sensitivity analysis investigates the impact of variation in NPK savings and byproducts of the biochar production process on monetized life cycle assessment results. As a result, it is suggested that biochar production from willow is preferred to biochar production from pig manure from an environmental point of view. In future research, those monetized environmental impacts will be integrated within existing techno-economic models that calculate the financial viability from an investor’s point of view, so that the total return for society can be quantified and the preferred biochar production system from a societal point of view can be identified.

Comparison of Life Cycle Assessment of Two Toasters

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raghunathan Srinivasan ◽  
Gaurav Ameta
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Recovery Phase ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Energy Impact ◽  
Household Products ◽  
Use Phase ◽  
One Year

The objective of this paper is to determine and compare the environmental impacts of two toasters: standard and eco-friendly. The most rapidly growing sector for the e-waste world comes from Electronic household products. More than 2 million tons of electronic products are disposed off as solid waste to landfills in the US alone. The demand for energy supplies has been rapidly increasing in the past decade. Strict legislative measures should be enforced to protect the environment by making industries collect back the manufactured products at the End-of-Life (EOL) from the users and recycle the products. If these necessary steps are not taken, then these e-wastes will impose serious threat to society and the environment. In order to re-design environmentally friendly products and facilitate sustainable take-back planning, current products need to be evaluated for their environmental impacts. One of the widely used methodologies to assess the environmental impacts of a product is called Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is a cradle to grave approach for assessing the environmental impacts of a product. The cradle to grave approach includes raw material phase, manufacturing and assembly phase, use phase, recovery phase and disposal phase. The system boundary for LCA presented in this paper includes material phase, manufacturing phase, use-phase and disposal phase. The functional unit for the LCA is entire life of the toaster which is one year based on manufacturer’s warranty which also includes the rate of usage. The environmental impacts from the two toasters as presented in this paper include eutrophication, acidification, energy-use and global warming. The use phase energy impact is experimentally determined.

FEATURES OF THE METHODOLOGY FOR CALCULATING THE VALUATION OF ECOSYSTEM RESOURCES

2021 ◽  
pp. 61-68
Author(s):  
Olena Suhina
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Mathematical Apparatus ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Absorption ◽  
Economic Point ◽  
State And Local

Valuation of natural resources, in particular ecosystem resources, occupies one of the leading places in modern economic theory. It should be noted that all methodological and methodical approaches used in world practice to determine the value of natural resources, in their economic essence evaluate each object of using the nature as a commodity that can be bought, sold, leased, etc. This approach is based on an economic point of view and does not take into account the ecological properties of this resource (for example, forest is evaluated exclusively as wood – raw material for the woodworking industry, and its assimilative and oxygen-producing properties are not taken into account). In the article we propose a methodological approach to the valuation of ecosystem assets of territorial communities that provide assimilation and oxygen production services to society, which is based on the ecological-economic point of view. The essence of this method is that the valuation of ecosystem resources is determined by the cost of their ecosystem services that they provide to society throughout its life cycle. Moreover, when carrying out a summary valuation of various ecosystem assets (forest, water, land), the latter must be valued by the same (identical) method. The paper proposes an algorithm and a specific mathematical apparatus that allows to determine the value of any ecosystem resource and on its basis to determine the complex value of ecosystems owned by local communities. Tables of data on the volumes of carbon dioxide absorption by plants of Ukraine, which most intensively assimilate carbon dioxide, on indicators of oxygen release by plants and on the duration of the life cycle of certain species of trees and shrubs. It is these indicators can be used as performance characteristics in the proposed mathematical apparatus in the valuation of ecosystem assets. It is noted that the availability of valuation of ecosystem assets will allow, both at the state and local levels, to make appropriate management decisions on their effective use.

Mechanical Performance of Asphalt Mixtures with Natural Aggregates and Recycled Aggregates for Surface Course

2014 ◽  
Vol 600 ◽  
pp. 657-666 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vagner da Costa Marques ◽  
Bismak Oliveira de Queiroz ◽  
Diego Meira de Lacerda ◽  
Antônio Marcos de Araújo Gouveia ◽  
Ricardo Almeida de Melo
Keyword(s):  
Solid Waste ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Mechanical Performance ◽  
Waste Recycling ◽  
Asphalt Mixtures ◽  
Recycled Concrete ◽  
Recycled Aggregates ◽  
Asphalt Mix ◽  
Natural Aggregates ◽  
Marshall Stability

The recycled aggregates of construction and demolition solid waste can be used on pavements to decrease environmental impacts in cities. Thus, this study aimed to compare the mechanical performance of asphaltic mixtures made with natural aggregates and concrete recycled aggregates for surface course of pavements. The materials were collected in an asphalt mixing plant and in a construction and demolition solid waste recycling plant located in João Pessoa/PB, Brazil. The Marshall asphalt mix design was chosen to determine optimum asphalt content and evaluate mechanical performance of asphaltic mixtures. The asphalt mixtures specimens were composed of natural aggregates, and afterwards of recycled aggregates with percent contents of 25, 50 and 100. The optimum asphalt contents were 5.7 and 7.5%, Marshall stability of 1,070 and 790 Kgf, flow of 6.2 and 5.7 mm for natural aggregate asphalt mixtures and asphalt mixtures with 25% recycled aggregates, respectively. Moreover, percent air voids and percent voids filled with asphalt met the Brazilian DNIT: ES 031/2006 specified standard. However, the asphalt mixtures with 50 and 100% recycled aggregates did not meet the specified standard. Therefore, it was concluded that the replacement of natural aggregates with 25% recycled concrete aggregates in asphalt mixtures can be technically viable to build asphalt surface course on pavements, besides lowering pavement costs and decreasing environmental impacts.

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