Life Cycle Economic and Environmental Impacts of CDW Recycled Aggregates in Roadway Construction and Rehabilitation

Yunpeng Zhao, Dimitrios Goulias, Luca Tefa and Marco Bassani
Additional contact information
Yunpeng Zhao: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Dimitrios Goulias: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Luca Tefa: Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructures Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, 24 Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 10129 Torino, Italy
Marco Bassani: Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructures Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, 24 Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 10129 Torino, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 15, 1-17

Abstract: The use of recycled materials in roadway construction and rehabilitation can achieve significant benefits in saving natural resources, reducing energy, greenhouse gas emissions and costs. Construction and demolition waste (CDW) recycled aggregate as an alternative to natural one can enhance sustainability benefits in roadway infrastructure. The objective of this study was to quantitatively assess the life cycle economic and environmental benefits when alternative stabilized-CDW aggregates are used in pavement construction. Comparative analysis was conducted on a pavement project representative of typical construction practices in northern Italy so as to quantify such benefits. The proposed alternative sustainable construction strategies considered CDW aggregates stabilized with both cement and cement kiln dust (CKD) for the base layer of the roadway. The life cycle assessment results indicate that using CDW aggregate stabilized with CKD results in considerable cost savings and environmental benefits due to (i) lower energy consumption and emissions generation during material processing and (ii) reduction in landfill disposal. The benefits illustrated in this analysis should encourage the wider adoption of stabilized CDW aggregate in roadway construction and rehabilitation. In terms of transferability, the analysis approach suggested in this study can be used to assess the economic and environmental benefits of these and other recycled materials in roadway infrastructure elsewhere.

Keywords: construction and demolition waste; CDW aggregate; stabilization; life cycle assessment; roadway sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/15/8611/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/15/8611/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:15:p:8611-:d:606901

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().