Comparative study of environmental impacts of extraction of aggregate and loader equipment

The aim of this paper is to investigate the environmental impact of the different aggregate extraction equipment used in the production of concrete. Different front-end loaders available on the market were compared. Using the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) method, several environmental impacts including carbon footprint, ozone depletion and human toxicity per unit mass of concrete were analysed in SimaPro software. The average carbon footprint of the extraction process using the construction loader was estimated at 0.413 kg CO₂ eq per cubic metre of concrete, with the studied mix containing 1267 kg of gravel. The maximum observed difference in GWP values was 31.98%, while the average difference for most models was between 10% and 15%. The results show that using the right type of loader not only reduces costs, but also improves the final environmental profile of the concrete. By choosing the optimal loader equipment, CO2 savings in the concrete plant can reach the value of 5,200 kg CO₂ eq/year.