End-of-life options for ceramic masonry units – environmental and performance-based perspective

Abstract

Ceramic bricks are among the most used building material throughout human history for their excellent technical properties, abundance of raw materials and easy production. Huge quantity of brick waste is generated from demolition works at the end-of-life stage of buildings. Several scenarios within waste management hierarchy can be considered: a) preparing for reuse of bricks into masonry units for similar purposes; b) mechanical recycling (crushing, screening) to crushed stone for various applications -in backfilling, pavement, drainage works, which are examples of down-cycling or as concrete aggregate and as a component in blended binders which are examples of upcycling; c) disposal at inert waste landfills or used as a separation layer at municipal waste landfills.This study performs a life cycle assessment (LCA) of these three possible routes for ceramic waste and takes into account the relevant processes. The LCA results are calculated for the compulsory environmental indicators according to the methodology of EN 15804 along with the additional indicators assessing toxicity. The outcome of the LCA confirms that the most environmentally beneficial scenario is the reuse of bricks as it requires minimal activities for preparing. Technical feasibility issues and costs impact, associated to the three scenarios are also analysed. The conclusion is that an optimised and sustainable approach of bricks end-of-life shall be applied in order to boost the circularity in construction sector.