Life Cycle Assessment and Costing of Concrete Waste: A Case Study

The city of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are grappling with an escalating issue: a colossal volume of concrete waste within their landfills. This predicament stems from the rapid surge in infrastructure expansion over the past twenty years, which has led to a surge in construction and demolition activities. Regrettably, there is currently no effective sustainable strategy to curtail the influx of concrete waste into these landfills. The implications of such landfill accumulation extend beyond just environmental concerns, encompassing human health, resource depletion, and harm to ecosystems. In response, this study embarked on a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to contrast the existing landfilling and transportation practices for concrete waste with a proposed recycling approach. Conducted within the framework of ISO 14040:2006, the LCA was meticulously structured, with the EcoInvent 3.4 database and SimaPro 8.5.2.0 software employed to streamline its various phases and outcomes. The research did not stop at the environmental realm; it delved into the financial aspect, utilizing the Handbook Environmental Prices 2017 to determine the damage costs associated with each impact. The comparison, rooted in the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA), demonstrated a stark contrast between the environmental ramifications of landfilling versus recycling and transportation. The findings underscored the profound environmental toll of concrete waste deposition in landfills compared to the recycling method and transport process. By unearthing the disparities in impact indicators and management techniques for concrete waste, this study paves the way for future investigations to pinpoint influential factors. It also suggests the potential for a forthcoming Life Cycle Cost Assessment (LCCA) to supplement this analysis, unraveling the financial benefits of various concrete waste management strategies, and transcending mere damage costs. In essence, this study significantly enriches the comprehension of damage cost modeling and offers LCA insights into concrete waste management, encompassing divergent approaches like landfilling, recycling, and transportation.