Combining Material Flow Analysis Research Articles

Evaluation of the environmental impact of end-of-life refrigerators in Colombia by material flow analysis

The management of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) represents one of the main environmental challenges on a global scale, due to the rapid growth of this type of waste and the risk it poses to both human health and the environment. Decision makers depend on reliable estimates of the generation of WEEE and the quantification of its environmental impact. However, limited data regarding the amount of equipment in use, annual sales, and the lifespan of electrical and electronic equipment pose important limitations to this assessment. In response to this challenge, this paper develops a combined dynamic material flow analysis and life cycle assessment approach to estimate the volume of end-of-life refrigerators in Colombia and measure their environmental impact. First, the dynamic MFA model is developed to calculate the number of end-of-life refrigerators between 1935 and 2050. Then, the environmental impact is estimated using the CO2 emissions generated in each of the pathways of final disposal at the end of the refrigerators’ useful life. The results highlight the importance of the formal refrigerator recycling system in Colombia, since this achieves a saving of approximately three million tonnes of CO2 emissions during the period of evaluation. They also show that delivering refrigerators to informal recyclers or throwing them into open-air dumps or bodies of water generates a considerable environmental impact in comparison. Additionally, these alternative scenarios imply the loss of more than two hundred thousand tonnes of recyclable material.

Efficiency stagnation in global steel production urges joint supply- and demand-side mitigation efforts

Steel production is a difficult-to-mitigate sector that challenges climate mitigation commitments. Efforts for future decarbonization can benefit from understanding its progress to date. Here we report on greenhouse gas emissions from global steel production over the past century (1900-2015) by combining material flow analysis and life cycle assessment. We find that ~45 Gt steel was produced in this period leading to emissions of ~147 Gt CO2-eq. Significant improvement in process efficiency (~67%) was achieved, but was offset by a 44-fold increase in annual steel production, resulting in a 17-fold net increase in annual emissions. Despite some regional technical improvements, the industry’s decarbonization progress at the global scale has largely stagnated since 1995 mainly due to expanded production in emerging countries with high carbon intensity. Our analysis of future scenarios indicates that the expected demand expansion in these countries may jeopardize steel industry’s prospects for following 1.5 °C emission reduction pathways. To achieve the Paris climate goals, there is an urgent need for rapid implementation of joint supply- and demand-side mitigation measures around the world in consideration of regional conditions.

Biochar produced from wood waste for soil remediation in Sweden: Carbon sequestration and other environmental impacts.

The use of biochar to stabilize soil contaminants is emerging as a technique for remediation of contaminated soils. In this study, an environmental assessment of systems where biochar produced from wood waste with energy recovery is used for remediation of soils contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and metal(loid)s was performed. Two soil remediation options with biochar (on- and off-site) are considered and compared to landfilling. The assessment combined material and energy flow analysis (MEFA), life cycle assessment (LCA), and substance flow analysis (SFA). The MEFA indicated that on-site remediation can save fuel and backfill material compared to off-site remediation and landfilling. However, the net energy production by pyrolysis of wood waste for biochar production is 38% lower than incineration. The LCA showed that both on-site and off-site remediation with biochar performed better than landfilling in 10 of the 12 environmental impact categories, with on-site remediation performing best. Remediation with biochar provided substantial reductions in climate change impact in the studied context, owing to biochar carbon sequestration being up to 4.5 times larger than direct greenhouse gas emissions from the systems. The two biochar systems showed increased impacts only in ionizing radiation and fossils because of increased electricity consumption for biochar production. They also resulted in increased biomass demand to maintain energy production. The SFA indicated that leaching of PAH from the remediated soil was lower than from landfilled soil. For metal(loid)s, no straightforward conclusion could be made, as biochar had different effects on their leaching and for some elements the results were sensitive to water infiltration assumptions. Hence, the reuse of biocharremediated soils requires further evaluation, with site-specific information. Overall, in Sweden's current context, the biochar remediation technique is an environmentally promising alternative to landfilling worth investigating further.

A classification approach for urban metabolism using the CART model and its application in China

Exploring resource utilization strategies for different types of cities is essential for achieving the sustainable development of cities. Urban metabolism is a systems-oriented approach to understanding the interrelationship between urban socioeconomic status and natural environment through resource utilization. Recognition and identification of urban metabolic types could help in formulating targeted urban resource utilization strategies. However, few studies have investigated the classification of urban metabolism. Therefore, this study combines material flow analysis with the classification and regression tree model to present a classification approach for urban metabolism that considers cities’ socioeconomic, demographic, and climatic conditions and resource consumption. This approach was tested in Chinese prefecture-level cities. The results showed that gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, population, population density, and climate types were significantly correlated with cities’ resource consumption indicators. GDP per capita and climate types were the most important threshold variables for classifying urban resource consumption levels. GDP per capita was the optimal split node for electricity, total energy, water, industrial minerals and metals, and total outputs, while climate types was the optimal split node for biomass, fossil fuels, and construction materials. The level of urban resource consumption in temperate climates was higher than in other climate types. Eight types of urban metabolism were identified in China that were closely related to urban socioeconomic conditions, scale grade, resource endowment, industrial level, and energy structure. The findings of this study provide a reference for determining the problem of urban critical resource consumption and formulating appropriate urban resource utilization strategies.

Connecting circular economy and energy industry: A techno-economic study for the Åland Islands

Energy plays an essential role in circular economy because circular activities such as material processing require power and heat. In parallel, the rate of the transition to renewable energy is not adequate to meet the increasing energy demands. The objective of the study is to evaluate whether circular economy could increase the value of variable renewable energy investments and hence accelerate the transition towards renewable energy. The study involves a combined energy system and material flow analysis. The study is performed on a selected case region as the processes in circular economy and the availability of renewable energies are always local and depend on regional conditions. The Åland Islands was used as a case platform in the study as the electricity generation capacity from wind power in the region is expected to increase significantly in the near future resulting in high variability in the local power supply. Four alternative scenarios are analyzed in which the variable regional renewable energy supply exceeding the local demand is integrated for different purposes: power exports, circular economy, partly electrified transportation sector and district heating. With the highest annual system net profit (0.72 M€), integrating the power production peaks of variable renewable energy into circular economy was found to outweigh the annual economic benefits of power exports (−0.43 M€), the partly electrified transportation sector (−0.50 M€) and district heating (−0.27 M€). Therefore, the value obtained from the products derived from circular processes increased the value of the renewable energy system and would hence promote investments in renewable energy in the region.

Nexus Resources Efficiency Assessment and Management towards Transition to Sustainable Bioeconomy in Thailand

This research developed an analysis tool on nexus resource efficiency and management towards bioeconomy. Its application has been demonstrated in the Thai cassava and sugarcane supply chains combining Material Flow Analysis, nexus assessment, and Eco-efficiency. The results revealed that doubling the feedstock and maximizing biochemical/biomaterial production has the highest value addition and also the highest eco-efficiency among all the options considered. However, it required at least 2-3 times the amount of water and energy for irrigation and processing as compared to the base case. A more detailed analysis of regional resource availability and security needs to be further conducted to support the decision-making process. The scenario that has no increase in feedstock production but allocates the cassava used for export as feed to use for feedstock for biochemical/biomaterial instead can also have excellent economic returns and eco-efficiency with much lower resource consumption. Feedstock cultivation yield and lactic acid production efficiency are critical factors in reducing overall supply chain resource consumption. Decision-makers need to prepare a strategic plan for optimum resource allocation towards maintaining a less resource-intensive society.

Uncovering the benefits of integrating industrial symbiosis and urban symbiosis targeting a resource-dependent city: A case study of Yongcheng, China

While promoting the economic development of resource-dependent cities, the industry also brings serious environmental and ecological issues. The combination of industrial symbiosis and urban symbiosis (IS/UrS) offers a new solution to environmental and ecological challenges for resource-dependent cities. To quantify the benefits of IS/UrS in resource-dependent cities, this study assessed triple benefits including environmental (raw materials saving and wastes reuse), reduced CO2 emission, and ecological (emergy saving) benefits via IS/UrS in Yongcheng (China) by combining material flow analysis and emergy analysis. The results indicate that a total of thirty-nine IS/UrS activities (including twenty-nine in-use and ten potential IS/UrS activities) are identified, which can achieve remarkable resources saving including 2.37 Mt slag substitution for feedstock mix in cement clinker production (96% from existing in-use activities), 0.43 Mt municipal solid waste reduction (100% from potential activities), 1.07 Mt coal saving (35% from potential activities), 4.88 Mt CO2 emission reduction (23% from potential activities) and 5.53E+21 sej emergy saving (17% from potential activities). Urban symbiosis activities can contribute additional CO2 reduction and emergy saving by 11% and 7% respectively. Based on the performance of CO2 reduction and emergy saving, recycling of slag/fly ash and scrap steel should be given top priority in the local IS/UrS policy making process. The case study shows that IS/UrS is a useful approach to facilitate the sustainable development of resource-dependent cities, and could be expanded to other similar cities.

Path Analysis of Beijing’s Dematerialization Development Based on System Dynamics

Dematerialization is a phenomenon in which resource consumption and pollutant discharge decrease during economic development. In order to explore the optimal paths of Beijing’s dematerialization, this study combines material flow analysis method and the Tapio decoupling model to construct a city dematerialization evaluation model, and establishes a system dynamics model to simulate the comprehensive dematerialization levels and the dematerialization levels of eight materials under four scenarios. The results show that the key factors affecting the dematerialization levels of resource and discharge end were non-metals consumption and CO2 emissions respectively. During 2016–2030, Beijing would achieve weak decoupling state under four scenarios, but the degree of dematerialization would be different. For the comprehensive dematerialization level, during 2017–2024, an industrial restructuring (IR) scenario, which would strengthen R&D investment and optimize the industrial structure, would be the optimal choice. During 2025–2030, an environmental governance (EG) scenario, which means increasing the investment in pollution control, would bring about the best dematerialization level. There would be differences in the optimal dematerialization paths for eight materials. For example, economic sustainable degrowth (ESD) and EG scenarios would be the optimal paths for dematerialization of atmospheric pollutants in the period 2017–2021 and 2022–2030, respectively.

Economics of Enhancing Nutrient Circularity in an Organic Waste Valorization System.

Waste managers struggle to comply with the European legislation that regulates the handling of organic waste. A waste management system that aims at recovering nutrients from the municipal organic waste generated in the Spanish region of Cantabria was modeled by combining material flow analysis, life cycle assessment, and life cycle costing. The model was optimized to find system configurations that minimize the total annual cost (TAC) and the global warming impacts (GW) and maximize the circularity indicators of nitrogen and phosphorus (CIN and CIP). The developed superstructure is composed of waste management unit processes and unit processes related to the land application of the recovered products (compost, digestate, (NH4)2SO4, and NH4MgPO4·6H2O) and industrial fertilizers to grow corn. The results of the optimization indicate that increasing CIN and minimizing GW raises the TAC, because of the investment in new technologies, although high CIP values can be achieved at low TACs. The economic margin that enables the organic fertilizers to compete in the market with industrial fertilizers was estimated. Cooperation between waste managers, the farmers that purchase the recovered products, and the policy-makers that set the waste management taxes can minimize the costs that hinder the transition toward a circular economy.

Combining material flow analysis with life cycle assessment to identify environmental hotspots of urban consumption

Understanding the global environmental impacts of local consumption is an area of growing interest among policymakers and consumers. By knowing what products comprise urban consumption “hotspots,” municipalities and consumers alike could take deliberate actions to target and discourage consumption of high-impact products. In this paper, a new method for identifying environmental hotspots of consumption is presented. The main methodological advances are the following: i) material flow analysis of urban areas and life cycle assessment are combined; ii) a 16-year time-series of urban consumption data is used for selection of the most suitable representative products and for trend analysis; iii) representative products are selected systematically from consumption data of 1000 product types; iv) representative products are scaled up to represent consumption of the product groups; v) hotspots are identified by simultaneously evaluating six environmental impacts - acidification, climate change, eutrophication (marine and freshwater), photochemical ozone formation, and resource use; vi) for the case study, hotspots are connected to the city's profiles. The method was applied to the Swedish cities Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo and to Sweden in total. Electronics is a hotspot for all the studied areas and all the studied impacts and should be a prioritized product group for action. Fuel is a hotspot shared by all the areas while vehicles is a hotspot in Gothenburg. Meat is a nationwide hotspot, but not for the cities investigated. Gothenburg and Stockholm could collaborate to find effective measures for their common hotspot machinery. Thus, the method can be used to identify hotspots and find which product types could be part of national versus local programs.

ASSESSMENT OF MANUFACTURING PROCESSES ECO-EFFICIENCY BASED ON MFA-LCA-MFCA METHODS

The objective of this paper is to investigate eco-efficiency in a durable goods manufacturing system. It is intended to apply a method used in a company producing heating devices within the boiler sector. A hybrid methodology is used to assess the eco-efficiency of manufacturing processes, based on combining Material Flow Analysis, Life Cycle Assessment, and Material Flow Cost Accounting. This provides an effective approach to evaluate environmental and economic performance in the context of process improvement. To demonstrate the method, it is used a case study for comparing the eco-efficiency for baseline and improvement scenarios in a company producing central heating boilers. All of the suggested improvements were directed toward reducing the overall environmental impact of the plant without sacrificing in-process quality and increasing eco-efficiency. The results indicate higher eco-efficiency for cutting measured in terms of energy use. For the manufacturing processes, the greatest benefits came from eco-efficiency improvements in the cleaning phase. Eco-efficiency analysis revealed that the total cost of material losses could be reduced by 2% against current processes. Unfortunately, due to the high cost of processing fuel, painting creates the highest utilities costs. It illustrates a significantly less eco-efficiency (3%) compared to the current process. This method may serve as a useful foundation for enterprises to make viable decisions regarding material selection, whilst considering environmentally beneficial technologies and greater financial benefits at the same time.

Using material flow analysis and life cycle assessment in decision support: A case study on WEEE valorization in Belgium

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is a key resource in the circular economy given its high concentration of valuable materials such as metals. The complexity of recycling this resource, however, is high due to different collection, separation and reprocessing steps. A combined Material Flow Analysis (MFA) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can be used to optimise the environmental performance of this recycling chain. Whereas usually these methodologies are used post-factum, i.e. when data is available, this paper presents how MFA and LCA can be used to predict material flows and the potential environmental benefit of the recycling chain, guiding policy makers and industries towards effective decision making. Based on a case study in Flanders, Belgium, firstly, it is shown that currently only 32% of WEEE materials are recycled towards high-end applications whereas 68% is lost in low-end applications, landfill or incineration. Ferrous and non-ferrous metals such as aluminium and copper achieve the highest high-end material recoveries (54, 46 and 44% respectively), whereas precious metals and plastic achieve lower high-end material recoveries (21–38% and 20% respectively). Secondly, it is shown that the most promising factors to improve material recovery and environmental benefit are consumer behaviour and technological progress (mainly in separation technologies), both potentially doubling the current environmental benefit.

Evaluating the carbon footprint of WEEE management in the UK

The UK produces an estimated 2 Mt of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) annually and the management of this waste has become a foremost environmental issue in the UK. Whilst the collection, transportation and treatment of WEEE contributes to climate change due to its considerable energy and material requirements, the effective recovery and reuse or recycling of WEEE can contribute towards a net climate benefit. Here, we present a combined material flow analysis and carbon footprint approach (based on a bespoke calculator tool) for quantifying the flows of WEEE through a national waste management system and evaluating their potential climate impacts. We apply this approach to analyse the WEEE management system for the UK from 2010 to 2030 using prospective scenario analysis and assess the carbon footprint of their management pathways. Reuse was identified as the most favourable end-of-life management option in terms of potential climate impact, followed by recycling, with landfill identified as being the least favourable option. Overall, current end-of-life management practices for WEEE in the UK were found to result in a net positive (i.e. beneficial) climatic effect, although this saving was found to reduce when WEEE recycled as non-obligated WEEE was not included. Overall, we recommend that future national policies should focus on formalising indirect WEEE collection pathways to help increase overall collection rates and, thus, reuse and recycling activities.

Exploring “Internet+Recycling”: Mass balance and life cycle assessment of a waste management system associated with a mobile application

Individual users cannot readily access the collection channels is a persistent problem in municipal solid waste (MSW) management, resulting in low MSW collection rates. A new waste management model, “Internet+Recycling”, has come into being; this model enables individuals to arrange collection appointment through various online platforms, then the collectors pick up the waste on-site. It is believed that “Internet+Recycling” can be a solution to mitigate the collection barrier in MSW management, as it provides individuals a convenient access to formal waste management systems. However, whether this emerging MSW collection model would bring environmental benefits is yet unknown. We here quantitatively examine the mass balance and environmental performance of MSW recycling associated with the use of such a “Internet+Recycling” mobile application - Aibolv. All transactions occurred on the mobile application within a period of six monthare included, and all related activities are modeled using the methodology that combines material flow analysis (MFA) and life cycle assessment (LCA). According to the extant MSW management legislation in China, we classify the collected MSW into three categories, subsidized waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) like television and refrigerator – T1, unsubsidized WEEE like mobile phone – T2, and other recyclables like paper and fabric – T3. The MFA results show that plastics and common metals are the dominate secondary material streams, and glass, precious metals and battery metals are mainly recovered from WEEE. The LCA results indicate that the disposal of the T2 waste has the highest environmental savings, due to the recovery of precious metals. Increased remanufacturing rates impart negative impacts, while increments in the quantity of spent mobile phones could significantly improve overall environmental performance. Based on the acquired results, recommendations are provided for facilitating the future development of “Internet+Recycling”, and limitations of this work are identified as well.

Environmentally optimal wood use in Switzerland—Investigating the relevance of material cascades

This study assesses the environmentally optimal wood utilisation patterns under varying wood cascading options, using the example of Switzerland. Cascading is the use of the same wood unit in multiple, successive product cycles. To consider aspects relevant at the system level (e.g. stocks/flows, demand/supply constraints) as well as at the product level (e.g. process inventories), we present a model that combines material flow analysis (MFA), life cycle assessment (LCA) and mathematical optimisation to identify environmentally optimal wood use scenarios concerning climate change and particulate matter formation. We separately include the temporal dynamics of biogenic carbon flows, i.e. carbon uptake, storage and subsequent release, which may have a considerable influence on the climate change performance of wood products.Results indicate that multiple cascading (mC) of wood can decrease environmental impacts: total systemic impact reductions over the modelled 200-year time horizon compared to single cascading (i.e. all waste wood is directly incinerated), are between 35–59 Mt CO2-eq. and 43–63 kt PM10-eq. Driving factors for the environmental impact of future wood use scenarios are: waste wood processing efficiency, wood storage effects (in case of biogenic carbon accounting), and available cascading options. Particularly, high quality wood cascade of wooden beams is a promising recycling path for reducing environmental impacts.We conclude that by implementing wood cascading, future Swiss wood utilisation can be further improved in terms of environmental impact. The tool combination of dynamic MFA, LCA and optimisation proved to be suitable to identify environmentally optimal scenarios for a complex value chain.

The Environmental Burdens of Lead-Acid Batteries in China: Insights from an Integrated Material Flow Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment of Lead

Lead-acid batteries (LABs), a widely used energy storage equipment in cars and electric vehicles, are becoming serious problems due to their high environmental impact. In this study, an integrated method, combining material flow analysis with life cycle assessment, was developed to analyze the environmental emissions and burdens of lead in LABs. The environmental burdens from other materials in LABs were not included. The results indicated that the amount of primary lead used in LABs accounted for 77% of the total lead production in 2014 in China. The amount of discharged lead into the environment was 8.54 × 105 tonnes, which was mainly from raw material extraction (57.2%). The largest environmental burden was from the raw materials extraction and processing, which accounted for 81.7% of the total environmental burdens. The environmental burdens of the environmental toxicity potential, human toxicity potential-cancer, human toxicity potential-non-cancer, water footprint and land use accounted for more than 90% at this stage. Moreover, the environmental burdens from primary lead was much more serious than regenerated lead. On the basis of the results, main practical measures and policies were proposed to reduce the lead emissions and environmental burdens of LABs in China, namely establishing an effective LABs recycling system, enlarging the market share of the legal regenerated lead, regulating the production of regenerated lead, and avoiding the long-distance transportation of the waste LABs.

Selecting representative products for quantifying environmental impacts of consumption in urban areas

Populations are becoming more urban than rural, creating concentrated areas with high consumption of products. Understanding and influencing the environmental impact of consumption within cities becomes therefore increasingly important. Although there have been several studies evaluating the environmental impact of consumption at the global, national, and regional scale, there are few methods currently available to estimate impact at the urban level. There is therefore a need for a systematic approach to select appropriate, region-specific representative products. This study combines material flow analysis with life cycle assessment to select representative products that can be used as proxies to assess the environmental impact of urban areas using life cycle impact factors. The selection was based on the following criteria: the top consumed products within a product category, consistent products with respect to time and geography, and product types with known high environmental impact. The representative products were identified for three Swedish cities: Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo, using sixteen years of annual urban-level material flow analysis data (1996–2011). A total of 71 products across 44 categories, were identified as representative of the 10,000 product types consumed in the urban areas analyzed. The method described in this study can be used by practitioners to identify representative products in any urban area with material flow data and allows for a more comprehensive and tailored analysis that what has been previously available.

Combined material flow analysis and life cycle assessment as a support tool for solid waste management decision making

Material flow analysis (MFA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) have both widely been applied to support solid waste management (SWM) decision making. However, they are often applied independently rather than conjointly. This paper presents an approach that combines the MFA and LCA methodologies to evaluate large and complex SWM systems from an environmental perspective. The approach was applied to evaluate the environmental performance, focusing on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, of a local authority SWM system and to compare it with alternative systems to assess the potential effectiveness of different waste policy measures. The MFA results suggest that national recycling targets are unlikely to be met even if the assessed policies are implemented optimally. It is likely that for the targets to be met, investigated policies would need to be combined with additional policies that target reductions in waste arisings. The LCA results found landfilling of residual waste to be the dominant source of GHG burdens for the existing system, whilst material reprocessing was found to result in GHG benefits. Overall, each of the alternative systems investigated were found to result in lower GHG impacts compared to the existing system, with the diversion of food waste from the residual waste stream found to be potentially the most effective strategy to reduce GHG emissions. The results of this study demonstrate that the complementary methodologies of MFA and LCA can be used in combination to provide policy and decision makers with valuable information about the environmental performance of SWM systems.

Strategic management of WEEE in Switzerland—combining material flow analysis with structural analysis

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is one of the fastest growing waste streams, worldwide. In addition to the increasing amount, WEEE consists of numerous toxic, precious and scarce metals which makes its recycling and safe disposal an important environmental issue. Switzerland has a well-established recycling system operating since 1992. With 15kg of WEEE collected per inhabitant in 2011, Switzerland is one of the leading countries in collection. However, small electronic devices and IT and telecommunication equipment that do not constitute a significant mass in overall WEEE pose greater challenges to collection and recycling due to their size and dissipative structure. Among these categories, laptops and mobile phones stand out with increasing penetration rate, decreasing lifetime, and complex composition with high concentrations of precious metals in relatively small volumes. This study investigated the recycling of WEEE in Switzerland with particular focus on material flows of laptops and mobile phones as well as copper, silver, gold, and palladium originated from these products in 2011. Material flow analysis revealed collection rate for laptops and mobile phones as 35 and 37% and treatment rates as 28% and 15%, respectively. The overall recycling rates for copper, silver, gold, and palladium in laptops were estimated as 21, 13, 14, and 14%, respectively. As a result of lower treatment rate for mobile phones the recycling rates were found as 12% for copper, 7% for silver 8% for gold and palladium. In addition to the quantitative assessment of the recycling programme’s performance, Structural analysis was carried out to understand the underlying socio-economic, technical, and political elements that are influential in this case. The results suggest that external factors such as metal prices and criticality of metals have large influence on material flows. By coupling stakeholders' conceptualization of the system with material flows, this study strives to provide a comprehensive interpretation of the system for strategic management of WEEE in Switzerland.

Concept for a holistic sustainability assessment of the end-of-life phase of masonry

AbstractIn Germany, a quantity of more than 10 million metric tons of masonry rubble is generated per year. With regard to a sustainable closed substance cycle waste management, these rest masses have to be recovered if possible. The end-of-life (EOL) phase of masonry includes the planning steps of demolition, processing and application. The choice of the most sustainable solution raises questions regarding material technology, plant engineering, economic efficiency and ecological issues. For this purpose, a methodological concept for a holistic assessment of the EOL phase of masonry is developed within the scope of a doctoral thesis. For the assessment the Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) is adapted. The assessment concept enables a holistic comparison of different EOL scenarios for masonry while integrating all planning steps. It combines Material Flow Analysis (MFA), Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), Life Cycle Working Environment (LCWE), economic evaluation methods and material testing. In future, various scenarios can be evaluated with regard to the goals of the European and German waste management industry.