Environmental benefits of applying selective demolition to buildings: A case study of the reuse of façade steel cladding

Andersen, Rune Vinther; Ravn, Anders Stokbro; Ryberg, Morten

doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106430

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…However, when material recycling is highly energy intensive or used for applications of lower value than the material's initial purpose, a process known as downcycling [39] may contribute negligibly to circularity [17,40,41]. Selective disassembly and selective demolition are methods that can facilitate the effective reuse of building components and materials [42][43][44][45][46][47]. The former means that building components can be reclaimed, reused, and maintained throughout the building's life cycle [46,47].…”

Section: Circularitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Circular, Local, Open: A Recipe for Sustainable Building Construction

Kouvara,

Priavolou,

Ott

et al. 2023

Buildings

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In response to the construction sector’s contribution to the climate crisis and exacerbation of social inequalities, we explore sustainable alternatives in building construction, informed by the illustrative case study of the Polycare construction system. First, through a Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) method, we show that the ecological footprint of circularity-oriented buildings based on polymer concrete is significantly lower than that of conventional cement concrete buildings. Despite the drawbacks of polymer concrete, its high-performance properties and the possibility to integrate secondary materials in its recipe can result in a reduced carbon footprint. When coupled with design-embedded modularity that facilitates circular processes (e.g., the disassembly and reuse of building components), buildings similar to those in the case study demonstrate potential for transitioning towards comprehensive sustainable building practices. Further, we discuss how this sustainability potential could be enhanced, drawing from interviews with Polycare’s stakeholders and key literature findings. In this direction, we provide a set of proposals anchored in the argument that threefold “circularity, localisation, and openness” is vital for sustainable and affordable alternatives, with openness being a crucial element for fostering innovation, adaptability, and scalability in building processes.

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Section: Circularitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Circular, Local, Open: A Recipe for Sustainable Building Construction

Kouvara,

Priavolou,

Ott

et al. 2023

Buildings

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show abstract

“…However, it is important to state that this is a kind of artificial quantification that, beyond technical aspects, has political interests. It is already known that accounting for avoided impacts by LCA of reused elements or recycled materials is not well established in the scientific literature since there are difficulties in terms of methodological choices and the risk of double accounting [68][69][70]. On the other hand, in terms of CE, it is very important to quantify the benefits in order to incentivize reuse, recycling and DfD strategies and for this, it will be essential to have clear rules.…”

Section: Avoided Impacts Evaluation By Reusementioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Performance of Deconstructable Concrete Beams Made with Recycled Aggregates

et al. 2022

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The construction sector is one of the most energy-intensive and raw-material-demanding human activities and, hence, contributes a significant share of greenhouse gas emissions. As a matter of principle, making the construction sector “greener” is one of the main challenges for policy makers, private companies and the scientific community. For this reason, one of the most promising actions is based on recycling Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) and converting them into secondary raw materials for the construction sector itself. Moreover, the reduction of the environmental impact can be further amplified through the optimization of the production, assembly and deconstruction/reuse procedures and through the maximization of the service life. In this aim, the present work aims at analyzing the environmental performance of duly sized and designed prefabricated Decontructable and Reusable Beam (DRB) incorporating with Recycled Concrete Aggregates (RCA) assembled by means of an innovative system based on a memory®-steel prestressing technique. The environmental performance is evaluated through Life Cycle Assessment with a cradle-to-gate approach: the analysis of 16 midpoint impact categories was conducted using the methodology proposed by EN15804. In this context, three allocation scenarios for avoided impacts due to reuse (100-0, 50:50 and 0-100) were considered, and a sensitivity analysis was performed. It was verified that due to the higher amount of post-tensioning required for the innovative shape memory alloy steel bars, the DRBs present inferior environmental performance than the Ordinary Beams (ORB). However, when analyzing the reuse scenarios, it was observed that the DRB could have considerably lower impacts, depending on the type of allocation procedure adopted in LCA modeling. This study brings as the main contribution an evaluation and some design guidelines for the development of circular concrete structures based on the principles of Design for Deconstruction (DfD) and the prefabricated process.

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“…Selective demolition allows for the implementation of systems for the selective collection of waste at the place of its production with a view to its maximum recovery. From a general point of view, selective demolition has several advantages over the traditional one, which are [31,32]:…”

Section: Composition Of Candd Wastementioning

confidence: 99%

A Literature Review on the Use of Recycled Construction and Demolition Materials in Unbound Pavement Applications

Pereira

Vieira

2022

Sustainability

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The construction industry is one of the biggest sectors of economic activity in the European Union, consuming more energy and natural resources than any other industrial activity. Additionally, construction and demolition (C&D) waste is the most common waste produced throughout the European Union. A more efficient and effective use of natural resources and the attenuation of environmental impacts provoked by their extraction could be accomplished if correct construction and demolition waste management and recycling policies were implemented. The use of recycled C&D waste in road pavement layers is a solution with economic and environmental benefits that has been widely studied in recent decades. This paper provides a literature review on the relevant engineering properties of different types of recycled aggregates coming from C&D waste, a comparison with the properties of natural aggregates, and how these recycled aggregates perform in the long-term when used in unbound pavement applications. An analysis of the current status of C&D waste generation and recovery practices in the European Union is also presented. The aim of this review is to further encourage the use of recycled materials coming from C&D waste, particularly in unbound pavement applications, since, in general, research conducted worldwide has proven their good performance in the short and long-term.

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Environmental benefits of applying selective demolition to buildings: A case study of the reuse of façade steel cladding

Cited by 11 publications

References 19 publications

Circular, Local, Open: A Recipe for Sustainable Building Construction

Circular, Local, Open: A Recipe for Sustainable Building Construction

Environmental Performance of Deconstructable Concrete Beams Made with Recycled Aggregates

A Literature Review on the Use of Recycled Construction and Demolition Materials in Unbound Pavement Applications

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