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Life Cycle Assessment of the Construction and Demolition Waste Recovery Process
Mateusz Malinowski1, Zuzanna Basak1, Stanisław Famielec1
1Department of Bioprocess Engineering, Power Engineering and Automation, Faculty of Production and Power Engineering, University of Agriculture in Kraków, 30-149 Kraków, Poland.
Recovering construction and demolition waste (CDW) is key for the circular economy. Life cycle assessment shows Solution No. 2 has the lowest environmental impact, highlighting crusher use as a major pressure point.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Materials Science
- Engineering
Background:
- Effective recovery of construction and demolition waste (CDW) is crucial for circular economy implementation.
- Landfilling is common due to a lack of advanced recovery and recycling technologies.
- Understanding the environmental impact of CDW treatment is vital for eco-design and life cycle assessment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the environmental impact of three distinct CDW recovery technologies.
- To identify the optimal CDW recovery option based on environmental performance.
- To inform eco-design strategies in construction processes.
Main Methods:
- Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was employed.
- SimaPro 8.1 software and the Ecoinvent v3.8 database were utilized for analysis.
- A functional unit of 1 Mg of processed CDW was established.
Main Results:
- CDW recovery processes sorted over 13% for recycling and approximately 40% for reuse (stone aggregates).
- All three evaluated installations exhibited negative environmental impacts.
- Solution No. 2 demonstrated the lowest total environmental impact (15.96 Pt), with average resource consumption.
Conclusions:
- Solution No. 2 is the most environmentally optimal among the studied CDW recovery technologies.
- Crushing CDW emerged as the process stage with the highest environmental pressure (16.92 Pt).
- Optimizing CDW recovery should focus on reducing reliance on impact crushers rather than solely increasing sorting equipment.
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