Can Public Construction and Demolition Data Describe Trends in Building Material Recycling? Observations From Philadelphia

Abstract

There is a significant amount of waste generated during construction and demolition (C&D) activities, but few data to understand the sources, age, spatial origin, and its fate following entry into the waste management system. With few public records that track C&D waste flows, we turned to industry and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) to quantify C&D data and meta-data using material flow analysis (MFA). LEED databases are not normally used to build life cycle inventories or material flow accounts because they do not house sufficiently detailed data. We propose using the geo-referenced data on reused C&D waste in LEED databases to source parameters needed to build MFA models that support a circular building materials economy. By quantifying the change in C&D waste flow over years 2007-2017 and the diversion of materials from landfills from buildings in the United States City of Philadelphia, we found that, on average, 81% of total incoming waste was diverted from landfill and recycled into secondary materials markets. From LEED spatial data, we found that 77% of buildings sampled diverted C&D waste activities and installed building materials with recycled content. Although these findings describe material reuse metrics from different system boundaries in the built environment that cannot be statistically validated, they provide complementary data to describe C&D recycling performance benchmarks and incentive for future data collection to study and track trends in building material reuse. This case study highlights observations of C&D recovery and reuse from two separate but related operations, which could suggest that policies that incentivize C&D material reuse could promote a circular flow of building materials.

Circularity Outlines in the Construction and Demolition Waste Management: A Literature Review

“…Table 2 presents the involvement of stakeholders in research to provide efficient solutions. group and questionnaire 1 [54] interview and workshop 1 [44] expert consultation in framework design 1 [60] mentioning as an enabler for CDW management improvement 6 [14,16,55,[61][62][63][64][65] Sustainability assessment In order to meet the goals of the circular economy, the effectiveness of construction and demolition waste (CDW) management strategies must be evaluated. The significance of sustainability in current and future endeavors, guided by principles of design-led circularity-the eradication of waste and pollution, the sustained circulation of products and materials, and the regeneration of natural systems-cannot be overstated.…”

Selection Criteria for Building Materials and Components in Line with the Circular Economy Principles in the Built Environment—A Review of Current Trends

“…The results showed that the optimum replacement ratio was 5% as it improved the mechanical properties and the microstructure of the final product -Recycled or recovered content [162] To quantify and compare the environmental benefits of recycling and reuse at building level Literature review, LCA, and case-study The circular building, which is designed and built for disassembly, allows a reuse of 62% of the mass of the building and reduces GHG emissions by 88% along with other environmental benefits -Recyclability reusability ease of deconstruction [140] To The mortars produced with expanded clay aggregates and recycled fines showed satisfactory mechanical behaviors. Similarly, the incorporation of this type of mortars in the studied slab increased the mechanical strength -Recycled or recovered content [142] To study the effects of sodium salts on the production of lightweight aggregates synthetized from sludge marine clay…”