Page 239 - New Trends in Eco efficient and Recycled Concrete

Life cycle assessment applied to 9

recycled aggregate concrete

2
1
Desire ´e Rodrı´guez-Robles , Philip Van den Heede and Nele De Belie 2
1
School of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering, Department of Engineering and
2
Agricultural Sciences, University of Leo ´n, Leo ´n, Spain, Magnel Laboratory for Concrete
Research, Department of Structural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture,
Ghent University, Tech Lane Ghent Science Park, Campus A, Ghent, Belgium

9.1 Introduction

The role of the concrete industry in the growth of modern society and economy is
indisputable, as is its contribution to the degradation of the environment. The con-
struction sector has great relevance in the growth of the European economic and
social activities. Despite the effects of the 2007 08 economic crisis, the construc-
tion sector contributes to around 9% of the gross domestic product and provides
18 million direct jobs in around three million enterprises in the European Union
(EBC, 2017).
However, the construction industry is not an environmentally friendly activity.
Indeed, it is a major contributor in the degradation of the environment (Bossink and
Brouwers, 1996). Negative impacts that have been cited include: land depletion and
deterioration, energy consumption, solid waste generation, dust and gas emission,
noise pollution and consumption of nonrenewable natural resources (Ofori, 1992).
The European construction industry exhausts more than 50% of European natural
resources (Schultmann et al., 2010), is responsible for 40% of the total European
energy consumption (Zabalza Bribia ´n et al., 2009) and generates 34% of the waste
produced annually (Eurostat, 2018).
Since the first alarm in the 1970s, the reconciliation of economic development
with the preservation of the environment has become a major global challenge. Of
the many environmental impacts of development, those caused by the construction
industry have triggered considerable public and governmental concerns that have
led to research ways to consume less energy and natural resources and generate
less waste.
Environmental protection has become an issue of global importance. Within the
sustainable measures adopted by the construction industry, the construction and
demolition waste (CDW) management and its recycling as secondary aggregates for
concrete manufacturing has been studied as a possible way to reduce the environ-
mental pressure on natural resources and to decrease waste generation. Despite the

New Trends in Eco-efficient and Recycled Concrete. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102480-5.00009-9
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