Life Cycle Assessment of Concrete Recycling Solutions in Light of Their Technical Complexity

Waste management is a key step for addressing both the environmental impact and the growing demand for resources in the construction industry. To answer these challenges, various technologies are available, carrying different environmental impacts and sociotechnical implications. For concrete waste, recycling is the most common solution. Two main recycling roads were identified, leading to products that have low or high value and implying different technical developments and environmental impacts. This study first proposed to characterize recycling technologies by their technical degree, reflecting the complexity needed to process waste. It secondly compared their environmental impacts using LCA methodology to assess which technical complexity led to minor environmental consequences and under what conditions. The results revealed that the technologies with a low technical degree tended to have a lower environmental impact than the ones with a higher technical degree when only the generated impacts were considered. The reverse was observed when considering the aggregated impacts due to the environmental benefits provided by the potentially avoided products.