Is Recycling Always the Best Option? Environmental Assessment of Recycling of Seashell as Aggregates in Noise Barriers

Waste recycling is an essential part of waste management. The concrete industry allows the use of large quantities of waste as a substitute for a conventional raw material without sacrificing the technical properties of the product. From a circular economy point of view, this is an excellent opportu...

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Autores: Peceño, Begoña, Leiva Fernández, Carlos, Alonso-Fariñas, Bernabé, Gallego-Schmid, Alejandro
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/143375
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/143375
https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8070776
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Life cycle assessment
Circular economy
Environmental sustainability
Mollusk shell
Porous concrete
Construction
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spelling Is Recycling Always the Best Option? Environmental Assessment of Recycling of Seashell as Aggregates in Noise BarriersPeceño, BegoñaLeiva Fernández, CarlosAlonso-Fariñas, BernabéGallego-Schmid, AlejandroLife cycle assessmentCircular economyEnvironmental sustainabilityMollusk shellPorous concreteConstructionWaste recycling is an essential part of waste management. The concrete industry allows the use of large quantities of waste as a substitute for a conventional raw material without sacrificing the technical properties of the product. From a circular economy point of view, this is an excellent opportunity for waste recycling. Nevertheless, in some cases, the recycling process can be undesirable because it does not involve a net saving in resource consumption or other environmental impacts when compared to the conventional production process. In this study, the environmental performance of conventional absorption porous barriers, composed of 86 wt % of natural aggregates and 14 wt % cement, was compared with barriers composed of 80 wt % seashell waste and 20 wt % cement through an attributional cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment. The results show that, for the 11 environmental impact categories considered, the substitution of the natural aggregates with seashell waste involves higher environmental impacts, between 32% and 267%. These results are justified by the high contribution to these impacts of the seashell waste pre-treatment and the higher cement consumption. Therefore, the recycling of seashells in noise barrier manufacturing is not justified from an environmental standpoint with the current conditions. In this sense, it could be concluded that life cycle assessments should be carried out simultaneously with the technical development of the recycling process to ensure a sustainable solution.MDPIIngeniería Química y AmbientalTEP135: Ingeniería Ambiental y de ProcesosRegional Government of Coquimbo (Chile) BIP 40014353-02020info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/11441/143375https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8070776reponame:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevillainstname:Universidad de Sevilla (US)InglésProcesses, 8 (7), 776.BIP 40014353-0https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/8/7/776info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:idus.us.es:11441/1433752026-06-17T12:51:07Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Is Recycling Always the Best Option? Environmental Assessment of Recycling of Seashell as Aggregates in Noise Barriers
title Is Recycling Always the Best Option? Environmental Assessment of Recycling of Seashell as Aggregates in Noise Barriers
spellingShingle Is Recycling Always the Best Option? Environmental Assessment of Recycling of Seashell as Aggregates in Noise Barriers
Peceño, Begoña
Life cycle assessment
Circular economy
Environmental sustainability
Mollusk shell
Porous concrete
Construction
title_short Is Recycling Always the Best Option? Environmental Assessment of Recycling of Seashell as Aggregates in Noise Barriers
title_full Is Recycling Always the Best Option? Environmental Assessment of Recycling of Seashell as Aggregates in Noise Barriers
title_fullStr Is Recycling Always the Best Option? Environmental Assessment of Recycling of Seashell as Aggregates in Noise Barriers
title_full_unstemmed Is Recycling Always the Best Option? Environmental Assessment of Recycling of Seashell as Aggregates in Noise Barriers
title_sort Is Recycling Always the Best Option? Environmental Assessment of Recycling of Seashell as Aggregates in Noise Barriers
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Peceño, Begoña
Leiva Fernández, Carlos
Alonso-Fariñas, Bernabé
Gallego-Schmid, Alejandro
author Peceño, Begoña
author_facet Peceño, Begoña
Leiva Fernández, Carlos
Alonso-Fariñas, Bernabé
Gallego-Schmid, Alejandro
author_role author
author2 Leiva Fernández, Carlos
Alonso-Fariñas, Bernabé
Gallego-Schmid, Alejandro
author2_role author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Ingeniería Química y Ambiental
TEP135: Ingeniería Ambiental y de Procesos
Regional Government of Coquimbo (Chile) BIP 40014353-0
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Life cycle assessment
Circular economy
Environmental sustainability
Mollusk shell
Porous concrete
Construction
topic Life cycle assessment
Circular economy
Environmental sustainability
Mollusk shell
Porous concrete
Construction
description Waste recycling is an essential part of waste management. The concrete industry allows the use of large quantities of waste as a substitute for a conventional raw material without sacrificing the technical properties of the product. From a circular economy point of view, this is an excellent opportunity for waste recycling. Nevertheless, in some cases, the recycling process can be undesirable because it does not involve a net saving in resource consumption or other environmental impacts when compared to the conventional production process. In this study, the environmental performance of conventional absorption porous barriers, composed of 86 wt % of natural aggregates and 14 wt % cement, was compared with barriers composed of 80 wt % seashell waste and 20 wt % cement through an attributional cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment. The results show that, for the 11 environmental impact categories considered, the substitution of the natural aggregates with seashell waste involves higher environmental impacts, between 32% and 267%. These results are justified by the high contribution to these impacts of the seashell waste pre-treatment and the higher cement consumption. Therefore, the recycling of seashells in noise barrier manufacturing is not justified from an environmental standpoint with the current conditions. In this sense, it could be concluded that life cycle assessments should be carried out simultaneously with the technical development of the recycling process to ensure a sustainable solution.
publishDate 2020
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2020
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/11441/143375
https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8070776
url https://hdl.handle.net/11441/143375
https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8070776
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Processes, 8 (7), 776.
BIP 40014353-0
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/8/7/776
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv MDPI
publisher.none.fl_str_mv MDPI
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
instname:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
instname_str Universidad de Sevilla (US)
reponame_str idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
collection idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
repository.name.fl_str_mv
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