Sustainable Masonry Made from Recycled Aggregates: LCA Case Study

Abstract

For a sustainable building industry, reusable construction with a low demand for primary resources is needed. Moreover, if we want to reduce the amount of construction and demolition waste, construction with recycled aggregate should be considered. To investigate the environmental impacts of such concrete construction, life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to compare the following types of concrete construction: Reusable blocks with recycled brick aggregate, reusable blocks with recycled concrete, reusable blocks with natural aggregate, and regular concrete wall. Firstly, the properties of new concrete with recycled aggregate were measured, such as physical, mechanical, and thermal properties. Then, different constructions were designed and assessed using the method of Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML2001) and the method of National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (ReCiPe 2016) as characterization methods. Unsurprisingly, the regular concrete wall had a higher impact on most of the impact categories, e.g., 113 kg CO 2 eq. (in the first scenario, using CML2001). In accordance with the circular principles, the reusability of blocks and recycling of aggregate are the main factors that affect the environmental impact of the constructions. Thus, the global warming potential (GWP) of construction with reusable recycled concrete blocks was only 53 kg CO 2 eq. (in the second scenario). Moreover, we show differences in the results of CML2001 and ReCiPe 2016, e.g., in the Photochemical Oxidant Creation category.

Tracking the material cycle of Italian bricks with the aid of building information modeling

“…The cost of shipping would easily make Italian crushed bricks more costly than local alternatives, and the environmental impacts for delivering such bulky and heavy material would quickly exceed local options (Estanqueiro et al., 2018). It is thus important for material scientists and engineers to research a more sustainable alternative approach that will enhance closed‐loop recycling and allow the reuse of bricks as structural elements within the country of origin (Lederer, Gassner, Kleemann, et al., 2020; Pešta et al., 2020).…”

Life Cycle Assessments of Circular Economy in the Built Environment—A Scoping Review

“…The most assessed CE definition, using the R-imperatives as measure, was recycling (n = 36), followed by reuse (n = 32), with the least being not represented at all (refuse, rethink, repair, reduce, remanufacture, and along with 'downcycling) (n = 0) (see Figure 8b). A number (n = 12) of studies assessed several imperatives, e.g., [32], who assesses case studies applying upcycling and Design for Disassembly (DfD) respectively; [36], whose circular design case applies DfD principles with the options of reuse, recycling, and recovery; [37], who assesses reusable masonry blocks produced from recycled CDW; and [38], whose guidelines are derived from case studies on 'the circular kitchen', assessing various circular value retention processes (VRPs), e.g., a variant designed with recycled contents and one enabling reuse of the single components. Diving into the content of the papers, Figure 8a, it was found that the scales most predominantly assessed in the case studies were materials (n = 28), followed by components (n = 18), with the least being neighbourhood and/or city, both with (n = 1).…”

An empirical study on the thermal behavior of rice husk in eco-friendly brick for external walls of buildings

“…Studies indicate that sustainable natural building materials reduce the consumption of natural materials and the environmental impact caused by the extraction, transportation, and processing of materials. Some studies have indicated that the use of natural materials reduces the greenhouse gases emitted from buildings by 56.6% during the life of the building [11].experimental studies investigated the use of natural and waste materials in building construction such as agricultural waste [12,13,14,15,16], construction waste [17,18,19] Studies have proven that the heat gain by 21% and reduce indoor temperatures of residential spaces by 25% [11] which leads to improved thermal conditions, and thus these materials reduce energy consumption. Also, Studies have indicated that the building envelope is the largest contributing factor to thermal comfort within residential spaces; as such, many different types of bricks in the external walls cement bricks could lead to lower electricity consumption by 12.8% [20], gypsum-covered clay panels have been found to reduce temperatures 2.5 K compared traditional brick walls [21].…”