Reuse of construction materials as a tool for sustainable growth: literature review

Abstract

Activities related to the civil construction sector (including the stages of execution, renovation, repair and demolition) are considered responsible for the exacerbated generation of a large volume of Construction and Demolition Residues (CDR), popularly known as rubble (composed, basically, by the remains of different materials, blocks, soils, rocks, tiles, bricks, glass, wood, steel, plaster, mortar, concrete, and ceramics, among others), which are accumulated worldwide. Thus, this paper objective to carry out a review of literature related to the environmental aspect in an exploratory manner through an internet search platform, that is, articles published in indexed journals and scientific events associated with the theme of reusing materials in construction. Given the material analyzed, it can be seen that: (i) CDR, currently accumulated in a large proportion, is considered one of the main responsible for generating various types of damage to the environment, (ii) the process of deconstruction of buildings – dismantling, considered a correct environmental alternative - would contribute to the conversion used in the current model of use of conventional construction materials to a circular model, (iii) the implementation of an efficient management plan for CDR would help in reducing the accumulated volume, would facilitate its routing both for recycling and for their disposal in landfills, it would reduce urban cleaning costs, reduce the impact on sources of natural aggregates, and encourage the installation of recycling plants and reuse of CDR, and enable the production of alternative construction materials.