Environmental Impact Assessment of Recycling Pavements Materials

ERICA CORREA; A.PABLO ARENA; CARLOS DE ROSA

Líbano.

Conferencia; PLEA 2005. The 22th Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture; 2005

“As natural resources become scarcer and more costly to obtain, recycling pavement materials has proved to be a feasible process to rehabilitate worn-out pavements. The use of recycled materials in pavement maintenance and rehabilitation has increased for the following reasons: a. Environment. Prior to the inception of recycling techniques, the reconstruction of old pavements often consisted of removing, stockpiling, or disposing of old pavement materials. Recycling of these pavement materials uses an inexpensive, available material and eliminates the disposal problem. b. Material cost. In the last several decades the public and Government have recognized that there is not an unlimited supply of natural materials. The amount of asphalt and high-quality aggregate available for construction is limited. This fact, along with an inflated economy, has caused a substantial increase in the cost of pavement materials and thus encouraged the use of recycle materials. The rising cost of fuel and equipment required to haul the asphalt and aggregate to job sites has encouraged recycling, especially as the haul distances become longer. c. Technology and equipment. The increased interest in recycling pavements has brought about the development of technology and equipment for recycling that result in an overall reduction in cost when recycled materials are used. The purpose of this study is to assess the amount of resources and emissions associated with every stage of the construction of 960 m2 of concrete and asphalt pavements according to current practice in the region that is without recycling and to compare it against the implementation of current recycling process for both types of pavements. Also the environmental profile of concrete and asphalt production, with and without recycling, will be obtained in order to assess the environmental benefits derived from the implementation of this technology, using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a tool and following SETAC’s guidelines”.