A Methodology to Qualitatively Select Upcycled Building Materials from Urban and Industrial Waste

Sara Parece, Vasco Rato, Ricardo Resende, Pedro Pinto and Stefania Stellacci
Additional contact information
Sara Parece: ISTAR, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal
Vasco Rato: ISTAR, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal
Ricardo Resende: ISTAR, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal
Pedro Pinto: Dinâmia-Cet, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal
Stefania Stellacci: ISTAR, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-38

Abstract: The rising concern about climate change and other challenges faced by the planet led society to look for different design solutions and approaches towards a more balanced relationship between the built and natural environment. The circular economy is an effective alternative to the linear economic model inspired by natural metabolisms and the circular use of resources. This research explores how innovative strategies can be integrated for evaluating local urban and industrial wastes into sustainable building materials. A literature review is conducted focusing on circular design strategies, re-use, recycle, and waste transformation processes. Then, a methodology for the selection of upcycled and re-used building materials is developed based on Ashby’s method. A total of thirty-five types of partition walls, which include plastic, wood, paper, steel, aluminium, and agricultural wastes, are evaluated using a multi-criteria decision aid (M-MACBETH). Among these solutions, ten types of walls show high-performance thermal and sound isolation, fourteen types are effective for coating, and two exhibit structural reliability. Regardless of their functional limitations, the proposed solutions based on waste materials bear great potential within the construction industry.

Keywords: circular economy; multi-criteria decision analysis; reuse; upcycle; industrial waste; urban waste (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/6/3430/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/6/3430/ (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:14:y:2022:i:6:p:3430-:d:771512

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 ().