Life cycle assessment on recycled e-waste concrete

• Main Authors: Goh, Pei Gy, Maghfouri, Mehdi, Onn, Chiu Chuen, Loo, Siaw Chuing
• Format: Article
• Published: Elsevier 2022
• Subjects: TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/41177/

The electronic industry is a fast-growing trade. Its speedy development quickly leads to obsoleting the devices. The e-plastic, as the second major component in e-waste after metal components, is costly yet challenging to recycle due to the complexities of the plastic resin mixtures. Therefore, utilising e-plastic to replace natural coarse aggregate in concrete material can reduce the envi-ronmental impact of landfilling the e-plastic and decrease the cost of concrete, making the con-crete eco-friendlier. This study aims to deploy a life cycle assessment (LCA) to determine the potential reduction in the environmental impact of e-plastic concrete compared among four scenarios with different types of binders, using SimaPro software. The four scenarios are built up from 1) conventional concrete, 2) concrete with 20 % coarse aggregate replaced by e-plastic, 3) 20 % e-plastic concrete with 30 % cement replaced by GGBS and 4) 20 % e-plastic concrete with 100 % cement replaced by GGBS and fly ash. From the global warming potential (GWP) perspective, using ReCiPe 2016 midpoint (H) analysis, all the e-plastic concrete shows a positive reduction of 1.26 %, 23.8 % and 21.43 % respectively compared to conventional concrete. However, the overall environmental impact shows a negative reduction, especially for scenario 3 and scenario 4. The presence of additives such as superplasticiser and alkaline solvent in the scenario 4 generates an environmental impact to the concrete from their manufacturing process. Therefore scenario 4 has a significant negative reduction in most of the indicators. Practically, e -plastic in concrete helps reduce the consumption of natural resources, lower the construction industry's environmental strain, and fix e-plastic deluged.