Life cycle assessment of Municipal Construction and Demolition Waste Management System of Campinas Metropolitan Region

ABSTRACT

The absence or inefficiency of Municipal Construction and Demolition Waste Management Systems (MCDWMS) may cause environmental impacts, which need a systematic evaluation, considering the local reality. There are few studies on the environmental impacts’ quantification of construction and demolition waste (CDW) management. Thus, in this work, MCDWMS’ environmental performance of the municipalities in the metropolitan region of Campinas was evaluated based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The LCA study was modeled using the SimaPro 8.2.0, and the environmental impacts were evaluated by the CML baseline 2000 method, considering the categories of global warming, human toxicity, photochemical oxidation, acidification and eutrophication. When comparing the current environmental performance with the scenario that includes a recycling rate of 70% of CDW Class A (goal established in the Solid Waste Plan of São Paulo State), the environmental impacts were reduced in 22%. However, when analyzing the scenarios individually for each municipality, it was verified that due to the transport distances, some municipalities did not present environmental benefits resulting from recycling. These results demonstrate that recycling should not be the first option in the MCDWMS, and that the adoption of source reduction and reuse of waste within the scope of CDW management is urgent. These results may support the decision-making process in CDW management systems, as currently many Brazilian municipalities are planning the implementation of recycling facilities.

Keywords:
waste management; construction and demolition wastes; life cycle assessment; Campinas Metropolitan Region