scholarly journals Environmental Impacts and Benefits of the End-of-Life of Building Materials: Database to Support Decision Making and Contribute to Circularity

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 12659
Author(s):  
Ana Antunes ◽  
Ricardo Martins ◽  
José Dinis Silvestre ◽  
Ricardo do Carmo ◽  
Hugo Costa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
National Level ◽  
Construction And Demolition Waste ◽  
Demolition Waste ◽  
Life Phase ◽  
The Impact

This paper outlines a methodology for structuring a generic database of environmental impacts on the end-of-life phase of buildings, which can be used at the national level, in accordance with European standards. A number of different options are also considered for managing construction and demolition waste (CDW), as well as for promoting the circularity of materials in construction. The database structure has been developed for use by the main stakeholders who decide the disposal scenario for the main CDW flows, assess waste management plans, and identify the corresponding environmental aspects. The impact categories considered in this paper are global warming potential (GWP) and the abiotic depletion potential of fossil fuels (ADP (f.f.)). This lifecycle assessment (LCA) database further facilitates the identification of important information, such as possible treatments for CDW, or suppliers of recycled materials for use in new construction. Two demolition case studies were used to confirm the benefits of the proposed database. Two demolition scenarios are assessed—traditional and selective—in order to demonstrate the advantage of selective demolition in waste management. The results obtained from the environmental assessment of CDW flows demonstrate that the proposed database can be an important and useful tool for decision making about the end-of-life of construction materials, as it is designed to maximize their reuse and recycling. An innovative online platform can be created based on this database, contributing to the reduction of the environmental impacts associated with the end-of-life phase of buildings.

scholarly journals From Buildings’ End of Life to Aggregate Recycling under a Circular Economic Perspective: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 9625
Author(s):  
Ambroise Lachat ◽  
Konstantinos Mantalovas ◽  
Tiffany Desbois ◽  
Oumaya Yazoghli-Marzouk ◽  
Anne-Sophie Colas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Open Loop ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Construction And Demolition Waste ◽  
Recycled Aggregates ◽  
Demolition Waste

The demolition of buildings, apart from being energy intensive and disruptive, inevitably produces construction and demolition waste (C&Dw). Unfortunately, even today, the majority of this waste ends up underexploited and not considered as valuable resources to be re-circulated into a closed/open loop process under the umbrella of circular economy (CE). Considering the amount of virgin aggregates needed in civil engineering applications, C&Dw can act as sustainable catalyst towards the preservation of natural resources and the shift towards a CE. This study completes current research by presenting a life cycle inventory compilation and life cycle assessment case study of two buildings in France. The quantification of the end-of-life environmental impacts of the two buildings and subsequently the environmental impacts of recycled aggregates production from C&Dw was realized using the framework of life cycle assessment (LCA). The results indicate that the transport of waste, its treatment, and especially asbestos’ treatment are the most impactful phases. For example, in the case study of the first building, transport and treatment of waste reached 35% of the total impact for global warming. Careful, proactive, and strategic treatment, geolocation, and transport planning is recommended for the involved stakeholders and decision makers in order to ensure minimal sustainability implications during the implementation of CE approaches for C&Dw.

scholarly journals A Comprehensive Summary of Available Legislation and Practices in Demolition and Construction & Demolition Waste Management in the Arctic Region

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-162
Author(s):  
Iveta Nováková ◽  
Tatiana Drozdyuk ◽  
Katja Ohenoja ◽  
Arcady Ayzenshtadt ◽  
Bård Arntsen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Construction And Demolition Waste ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Demolition Waste ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Good Practices ◽  
Management Protocol

Abstract The need for better natural resource use is currently increasingly recognised, and high emphasis is given to the circularity of building materials and the reduction of activities with negative environmental impact. Legislation, guidelines, and other documentation play an important role in improving demolition activities and construction and demolition waste (CDW) management. Good practices in CDW handling is not achievable without knowledge about CDW recovery techniques described in guidelines and other documents. Demolition activities in arctic regions could be more challenging due to harsh climate conditions, and therefore the cooperation between Russia, Norway and Finland was established to boost the uptake of good practices in demolition activities and CDW management. The main subject of this article is an overview of presently used demolition practices, CDW management, and verification of areas where practices with lower environmental impact and increase of material circularity could be utilised. Two fundamental documents, namely “EU Construction & Demolition Waste Management Protocol” and “Guidelines for the waste audits before demolition and renovation works of buildings” [1, 2], were published by the European Union (EU) in 2019 and serve as a foundation for changes in demolition activities and CDW management in EU and adventitiously also in the Russian Federation and Norway.

scholarly journals Australian Construction and Demolition Waste Management System in Australia: Investigation of Challenges and Opportunities

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salman Shooshtarian ◽  
Tayyab Maqsood ◽  
Peter SP Wong ◽  
Malik Khalfan ◽  
Rebecca J. Yang
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Management System ◽  
Construction And Demolition Waste ◽  
Local Market ◽  
Demolition Waste ◽  
Waste Management System ◽  
System A ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
The Impact

Increased construction activities in Australia have led to the generation of a massive volume of construction and demolition (C&D) waste annually. Management of this volume of waste requires an effective waste framework. The literature reported that the current Australian waste framework does not meet expectations and needs immediate improvements. This study was therefore conducted to seek the key C&D stakeholders' opinion about various issues identified in this waste stream. The specific objectives of this study are identification of the main barriers to effective C&D waste management, the impact of current regulations and opportunities to enhance the current C&D waste management system. A survey was conducted in 2019 to capture the stakeholders' perception. 132 participants from various industries and government agencies based in various Australian jurisdictions took part in the survey. The key results showed that the main barriers towards an effective management system are "overregulation, tough acceptance criteria, and increased testing requirements", "lack of local market" and "culture, poor education and low acceptance". Furthermore, a low number of participants indicated that the current legislation encourages waste recovery activities. The main areas of improvements included "providing a guideline that determines the accepted level of contamination for reusing C&D waste”, "preparation of guidelines on requirements of using recycled C&D materials in different industries" and "setting target for reduction, reusing, and recycling C&D waste". The results can inform policy development and be used as evidence for a broader discussion to solve lasting issues in C&D waste management.

Prioritizing the effective strategies for construction and demolition waste management using fuzzy IDOCRIW and WASPAS methods

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Eghbali-Zarch ◽  
Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam ◽  
Kazem Dehghan-Sanej ◽  
Amin Kaboli
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Fuzzy Numbers ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
Construction And Demolition Waste ◽  
Demolition Waste ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Effective Strategies

PurposeThe construction industry is a key driver of economic growth. However, the adverse impacts of construction and demolition waste (CDW) resulted from the active construction projects on the economy, environment, public health and social life necessitates an appropriate control and management of this waste stream. Developing and promoting the construction and demolition waste management (CDWM) hierarchy program at the strategic level is essential.Design/methodology/approachThis study aims to propose a hybrid decision model that hybridizes the Integrated Determination of Objective Criteria Weights (IDOCRIW) and weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) under a fuzzy environment.FindingsThe proposed method ranks the potential strategic alternatives by the sustainable development criteria to improve the performance of CDWM. As indicated in the results, the fuzzy approach in the decision-making process enables the transformation of linguistic variables into fuzzy numbers that show uncertainty and ambiguity in real-world systems. Moreover, the close correlation between the final ranking of the proposed methodology and the average priority order of the strategic alternatives obtained by five different multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods implies the validity of the model performance.Practical implicationsThis proposed model is an appropriate tool to effectively decide on the development of CDWM from a strategic point of view. It aims to establish an MCDM framework for the evaluation of effective strategies for CDWM according to the indices of sustainable development. Implementing proper operational plans and conducting research in CDWM has the highest priority, and enacting new and more stringent laws, rules and regulations against the production of CDW has secondary priority. This study contributes to the field by optimizing the CDWM by applying the top-priority strategies resulted from the proposed fuzzy hybrid MCDM methodology by the decision-makers or policy-makers to reach the best managerial strategic plan.Originality/valueIn the proposed methodology, the IDOCRIW technique is utilized and updated with the triangular fuzzy numbers for the first time in the literature to derive the weights of sustainable development criteria. The fuzzy WASPAS method is utilized for evaluation and providing a final ranking of the strategic alternatives.

scholarly journals Study of the possibilities to reuse construction and demolition waste

2019 ◽  
pp. 246-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denitsa Hvarchilkova ◽  
Margarita Filipova ◽  
Ivanka Zheleva
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Road Construction ◽  
Waste Recycling ◽  
Construction And Demolition Waste ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Demolition Waste ◽  
Construction Waste ◽  
Outdoor Sports

For environment protection in the European Union (EU) it is very important the construction waste to be recycled and reused. The potential for the construction waste recycling and reuse is high, as their components have high cost. There is an opportunity for re-use of such materials in road construction, for drainage systems, for outdoor sports grounds and other construction sites. In 2012 a regulation on the management of construction waste and on the use of recycled building materials was adopted in Bulgaria, aiming to introduce a new model for the management of construction waste. This would guarantee: creation of favorable legislative and economic conditions for implementation of technologies ensuring the achievement of recycling and recovery targets but which are also financially viable in line with the country's incomes; identifying the persons responsible for covering the costs of building waste management and achieving the recycling and recovery targets; creating conditions for the production and marketing of materials from recycling of construction waste at a price that is competitive with the same new raw materials used in construction. The main effect expected from this normative document is to contribute to Bulgaria's development towards European trends, environmental protection through an integrated framework for the management of construction and demolition waste that will reduce the harmful impacts on it caused by construction waste, improving the efficiency of resource use, increasing the responsibilities of pollutants and stimulating investment in waste management.

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