Life Cycle Assessment of Construction and Demolition Waste: A Case Study of Recycled Aggregate Products in Australia

The management of construction and demolition (C&D) waste is a serious concern across the globe. The construction and demolition sector accounts for over 40% of all waste from Australia with a recycling rate of almost 75% in some states. Thus, the largest contribution of this process is the diversion of waste materials to landfill. This study focuses on the life cycle assessment of the production of recycled aggregate product of a recycling plant in Australia and presents a comparative assessment of recycled aggregate products from the processes and the production of Virgin materials. Several scenarios are also conducted to examine the efficiency of the processes through transportation. The Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society (ALCAS) Best Practice Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) carbon neutral Method was used for the assessment. The results demonstrated that, the greenhouse gas emission reported as 4.88E+00 kgCO2eq is lower than the LCA on quarry products for natural aggregates in Australia which is 11.3E+00 kgCO2eq. Recycled aggregate produced from the plant reduces the carbon footprint by approximately 57% as compared to that of the quarry (natural aggregate) production. The results also reveal that, alternative sources to transportation can severely affect the carbon footprint of the recycled products and process. It is recommended that; precise data and information should be collected to reduce inaccuracies. Moreover, information on cost and prices were limited, therefore, the life cycle costing (LCC) assessment is not performed for this project, this is a good opportunity to establish further research on costs associated with the recycling of C&D waste at the plant.