۱- Introduction

۲- Framework for resource recovery and CE into buildings

۳- Study methodology

۴- Results and discussion

۵- Conclusions

References

Abstract

Buildings are responsible for a significant natural resources diminution and emissions to the environment. Thus, the building industry has become a global target for reducing environmental impacts and curbing resource depletion. Concerning the rapidly growth of buildings, life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used for assessing and mitigating the associated environmental impacts from material selection to the whole building systems. However, many of the previous studies have focused on the impacts assessment from buildings within a restricted system boundary, especially lack of consideration of several critical factors when assessing the whole building, such as wastage level of raw materials during building construction and the disposal impacts, renovation and replacement of components of building and their treatment, and waste treatments during building demolition. As the industry is shifting from linear to circular, the consideration of those factors are essential for ensuring waste reduction, resources recovery and resource-efficient construction, not to mention about increasing the accuracy of such assessment. Therefore, the present study was conducted to assess the environmental impacts of the mentioned aspects at different life cycles of building by LCA. The results were then critically discussed after identifying the contribution of waste materials at different stages of building to the total impacts. The potential sustainable strategies for waste treatments during the construction, operation and end-of-life stages of building were then highlighted to help lay important foundation for adopting circular economy principle in the building industry and establishing benchmark for future reduction.

Introduction

The construction industry is one of the main contributors to environmental burdens, consuming significant amount of non-renewable bulk resources and raw materials, and causing considerable waste streams (Faleschini et al., 2016). While the industry plays an important role for economic contribution and social development throughout the world (Vitale et al., 2017), the industry also contributes to about 40% of depletion of natural resources, 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, and 25% of wastes globally (Teh et al., 2018). The building sector consumes a substantial amount of resources and is, therefore, one of the largest contributors towards environmental impacts (Atmaca, 2016; de Klijn-Chevalerias and Javed, 2017). For example, buildings are responsible for about 40% of the total energy consumption and 36% of the total CO2 emissions worldwide (Pal et al., 2017). Therefore, increasing attention has been devoted in the building sector to minimize the environmental impacts globally (Hossain and Poon, 2018a). In addition to the selection of low impact, sustainable and durable materials, consideration of sustainable management of construction and demolition (C&D) waste is also important to minimizing the disposal problem and reducing the associated environmental burdens, as a huge amount of land is currently occupied for the disposal of those materials, leading to an increase in the ecological footprint of the sector (Faleschini et al., 2016). Due to the volume, nature and high recycling potential, C&D waste is a priority waste stream in many part of the world including the European Union (EU) (Vitale et al., 2017; Borghi et al., 2018). Because C&D waste puts huge pressure on depleting landfills and affects the environment adversely (Butera et al., 2015; Bovea and Powell, 2016; Akinade et al., 2018), it is important to improve the sustainability by adopting design solutions with the aim to optimize resource usage and minimize waste material generation, as restated in the EU action plan for a circular economy (CE) (Vitale et al., 2017). Therefore, further policies and strategies are needed for resource-efficient management of C&D waste as the current trends are to the landfill or downcycling practices (Di Maria et al., 2018), and thus, EU proposed a new framework for this waste in the CE package (GálvezMartos et al., 2018).