Assessing environmental impacts of utilizing recycled concrete waste from the technosphere: a case study of a cement industry in West Java, Indonesia

• Published in: Journal of material cycles and waste management Vol. 26; no. 5; pp. 3248 - 3261
• Main Authors: Kristanto, Jonas, Aryapratama, Rio, Ibrahim, Muhammad Aulia Anwar, Anasstasia, Titi Tiara, Azis, Muhammad Mufti, Kalza, Andi Louis, Lestianingrum, Erna, Hendranata, Budiono
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Springer Japan 01.09.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Buildings; Carbon dioxide; Cement; Civil Engineering; Climate change; Concrete; Emissions; Energy demand; Engineering; Environmental assessment; Environmental impact; Environmental Management; Global warming; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Land use; Life cycle analysis; Life cycle assessment; Limestone; Original Article; Raw materials; Recycled materials; Residential areas; Residential buildings; Waste Management/Waste Technology; West Java Indonesia; Indonesia; Life cycle assessment; Dynamic stock modeling; Calcination; Concrete waste; Cement
• ISSN: 1438-4957; 1611-8227
• DOI: 10.1007/s10163-024-02042-1

Cement industries generate massive amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As a fast-growing economy in Southeast Asia, Indonesia consumed more than 62 Mtons of cement in 2020. To cut down the impacts from extensive resource extraction and GHG emissions from cement industries, utilizing secondary raw materials such as concrete is an option to simultaneously reduce the limestone requirement at cement plants. This study aims to estimate yearly concrete waste flow from residential building stocks and the environmental impacts of utilizing those concrete waste in a cement-producing region in West Java, Indonesia by combining dynamic material flow analysis, stock modeling, and life cycle assessment (LCA). We found Cirebon Regency’s residential buildings would accumulate 46.2 Mtons concrete stocks by 2050. The estimated concrete waste from demolished residential buildings in Cirebon would reach up to 2 Mtons by 2050 depending on building lifetimes. At the baseline scenario, environmental impacts per ton cement are 647.35 kg CO 2 eq. of Global Warming Potential (GWP), 90.25 kg C deficit of Land Use (LU), and 4,707.24 MJ of Cumulative Energy Demand (CED). By utilizing 1 Mtons of recycled concrete, the cement production facility would decrease those values by up to 5.42 kg CO 2 eq./ton cement, 0.09 kg C deficit/ton cement, and 0.43 MJ/ton cement, respectively. Our results help inform decision-makers to formulate policy options on utilizing concrete waste to reduce cement production environmental impacts.