Downcycling versus recycling of construction and demolition waste: Combining LCA and LCC to support sustainable policy making

Abstract

Andrea Di Maria, Johan Eyckmans, Karel Van Acker

Mei 2018

Urgent solutions are needed in Europe to deal with construction and demolition waste (CDW). EU policy has contributed to significantly reducing the amount of CDW going to landfill, but most of the effort has been put in downcycling practices. Therefore, further policies are needed to stimulate high-quality recycling of CDW. The present paper presents a combined life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) methodologies to analyse the environmental and the economic drivers in four alternative CDW end-of-life scenarios in the region of Flanders, in Belgium. The four analysed alternatives are (i) landfilling, (ii) downcycling, (iii) advanced recycling and (iv) recycling after selective demolition.

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CE Center co-authors:

 

Promoter CE Center

 

(*Former) Researcher Circular Economy Policy Research Centre