Macroeconomics

Life cycle inventory

Engineering

Ecology

Construction waste

Biology

Metallurgy

Materials science

Control engineering

China

Aggregate (composite)

Economics

Computer science

Computer network

Waste management

Environmental engineering

Political science

Cement

Life-cycle assessment

Environmental science

Environmental impact assessment

Composite material

Closed loop

Resource (disambiguation)

Production (economics)

Waste Management

This paper studies the potential environmental impact of recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) for concrete production in China. According to the cradle-to-cradle theory, a closed-loop life cycle assessment (LCA) on recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) utilization in China with entire local life cycle inventory (LCI) is performed, regarding the environmental influence of cement content, aggregate production, transportation and waste landfilling. Special attention is paid on the primary resource and energy conservation, as well as climate protection induced by RAC applications. Environmental impact between natural aggregate concrete (NAC) and RAC are also compared. It is shown that cement proportion and transportation are the top two contributors for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and energy consumption for both NAC and RAC. Sensitivity analysis also proves that long delivery distances for natural coarse aggregate (NCA) leave a possible opportunity for lowering environmental impact of RAC in China.

A closed-loop life cycle assessment of recycled aggregate concrete utilization in China