Abstract
The environmental impacts of buildings are based on the construction products, which together with their packaging can be assessed as one product system. To reduce the environmental impacts of buildings, the products and their packaging need to be optimised and analysed using environmental assessment. The purpose of this study is to assess the packaging related to the product according to the Life Cycle Assessment method. The environmental assessment was performed using the Product Environmental Footprint methodology, version 3.0. To compare the primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging, the results of the climate change indicator were used as a base to calculate the Package-to-Product (PtP) indicator. Among the considered scenarios to handle the waste packaging (landfilling scenario, material recovery scenario, energy recovery scenario, and the mixed scenario), the material recovery scenario is the most preferable and, for most of the packaging materials, the scenario with the lowest impact. Following the PtP result, the secondary packaging in the roof tile system has a significant share of the impact of the whole system (16% for the energy recovery scenario). Moreover, the results confirm the PtP indicator as the appropriate indicator to analyse the environmental impacts of construction products.
Highlights
In the construction industry, the main effort is to reduce the environmental impacts of buildings using materials and structures which consume less non-renewable resources and cause low environmental impacts
Construction waste packaging is produced during construction works and the reconstruction of buildings, and its main function is to preserve the quality of construction products and simplify the transport of products
The Life Cycle Assessment method and the PtP indicator were used as analytical tools for the environmental assessment of packaging waste produced by the following construction products: cement, aerated concrete block, clay brick, gypsum plasterboard, mineral reinforcement mortar, roof tile, mineral wool, ceramic facade panels, expanded polystyrene, and paint emulsion
Summary
The main effort is to reduce the environmental impacts of buildings using materials and structures which consume less non-renewable resources and cause low environmental impacts. The production of packaging for these construction products causes damage to the environment, and so managing the construction waste packaging could lead to a reduction of the environmental impact. One of the most important steps, which is recommended by this document, is to separate the packaging and sort it into types and materials directly on the building site. To manage the waste flows and increase the separation rate, it is important to understand the production patterns of packaging waste [2]. These activities, such as waste management and the separation of waste on the site, lead to the reduction of non-reusable waste flows, but this approach does not solve the environmental impacts caused by the production of packaging
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