Assessing material recovery of renovation waste in Shanghai, a life cycle perspective

In developing countries, large amounts of renovation waste are generated annually; however, its collection, transportation, disposal, and recovery have long been ignored. China has recently initiated many material recovery projects for renovation waste, and it is necessary to conduct an integrated environmental and economic assessment to select disposal facilities. A life cycle assessment of five potential scenarios was established to conduct a techno-economic evaluation in Shanghai, China. The results indicated that global warming potential, land use, and fine particulate matter formation considerably contributed to the related endpoint environmental impacts. In addition, the external cost of terrestrial ecotoxicity was the highest of all midpoint environmental impacts. As a result, techno-economic evaluation showed that waste-to-energy + production of recycled aggregates and bricks + landfill is the best available technique among the scenarios, which could be used as a sustainable method for renovation waste recovery in Shanghai. This study is expected to provide a reference for the sustainable management of renovation waste in developing countries.