Comparative life cycle assessment of different recycled concrete aggregates

Abstract

Concrete is recognized as the second most consumed materials in the whole world. Therefore, applying circular solutions to concrete, like recycling or reusing can guarantee a considerable benefits in terms of environmental impacts. In this paper, a comparative life cycle assessment is done for different recipes of recycled concrete aggregates in comparison to a recipe of virgin concrete aggregate, which are used in a case study called “Musterbude”. The recycling rate of aggregates used in the recipes are 45%, 60%, and 100% and they are supplied from different resources. For environmental impacts calculation, each recipe is defined as a scenario and their impacts are compared to each. The life cycle assessment results show that, despite low performance in water depletion indicator, the recipes with 100% recycled aggregates shows the best performance from environmental point of view.