Assessment of the recycling potential and environmental impact of building materials using material passports – A case study

Author(s): Meliha Honic, Iva Kovacic, Helmut Rechberger
Paper category: Proceedings
Book title: International Conference on Sustainable Materials, Systems and Structures (SMSS 2019) Energy Efficient Building Design and Legislation
Editor(s): Marina Bagarić, Ivana Banjad Pečur, Hartwig M. Künzel
ISBN: 978-2-35158-217-6
e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-218-3
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2019
Pages: 172-179
Total Pages: 08
Language: English

Abstract: Concerns about increasing global consumption of non-renewable resources as well as shortages of primary raw materials and reduction of space available for final disposal of wastes are raising important issues for the society. Additionally, the minimisation of resources consumption belongs to the main concerns of EU, resulting in development of strategies for maximizing recycling rates in order to minimize environmental impacts and energy consumption caused by extraction of primary materials. For enabling high recycling rates and low environmental impacts of buildings, detailed knowledge about the embedded materials as well as their characteristics in the building stocks is crucial.
In this paper, we will present the concept of the Material Passport (MP), used for evaluation of the recycling potential and environmental impact of materials embedded in buildings. A Material Passport assesses all materials including their quantitative and qualitative properties, thus significantly supporting recycling and optimisation of environmental impacts. Further, the Material Passport serves as design optimisation tool and it enables the generation and comparison of variants thus supporting the decision making process.
The assessment method and data structure for generating a Material Passport will be demonstrated on a case study. The focus is twofold - on assessing the recycling potential and environmental impact of single materials, as well as of the entire building. The assessment methodology is based on coupling of digital tools and digital building catalogues and eco- databases. The assessment of the concrete construction as case study demonstrates that the recycling potential of the building is about 50%; whereas the LCA analysis shows that the main environmental impact is caused by concrete as material. Thereby the Proof of Concept for the BIM supported MP as decision support tool was generated.

Online publication: 2019
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros): 0.00