Quantification of the impact of the end-of-life scenario on the overall resource consumption for a dwelling house

Abstract

In this work, fractions that are the result of the demolition phase of a dwelling house have been investigated with respect to their recovery potential: stony material, wood, metals, glass, synthetic materials and a rest fraction. Depending on their nature, different alternative end-of-life scenarios have been investigated to replace disposal, such as re-use, recycling or incineration with heat and electricity production. All resources necessary for these scenarios have been inventoried. At the same time, those that are not longer necessary for the disposal and those that would have been necessary to make the obtained products from virgin resources are quantified. Based on these three items, the overall balance results into the calculation of net virgin resource savings for different end-of-life scenarios, quantified in Cumulative Exergy Consumption (MJ of exergy). For this specific case, the best end-of-life scenario can save virgin natural resources with a content of 258 GJ of exergy. Looking at the entire life cycle of the house, i.e. construction phase, use phase and end-of-life phase, the quantitative analysis shows a saving of virgin natural resources of 15% with the implementation of the best end-of-life scenario instead of disposal as end-of-life.