Recycling Potential of Construction Materials: A Comparative Approach

Recovery and re-utilization of materials are regarded as key strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the built environment. Within those end-of-use scenarios, recycling is one of the widely used tactics, demonstrated by established infrastructure and developed supply chain networks in many geographic locations. While recycling is an increasingly common practice in the built environment, accurately defining recycling quality in order to compare technologies and material types remains methodologically contested. This is mainly due to the vast spectrum of scenarios that typically fall under the term ‘recycling’. Remanufacturing, downcycling, upcycling, and even direct reuse are all referred to as types of recycling in non-scientific circles, depending on the sector they occur in. The main challenge in assessing the material recovery quality of those solutions is that they exist on a continuum without clear divisions. Within that context, this article presents and compares four methods for assessing recyclability. The featured methods measure recycling potential from different perspectives: economic dimensions of the recycling industry; patterns of resource depletion; the energy cost of recycling; and the carbon intensity of recovery processes. The scientific foundations of the four methods are presented and a range of widely used construction materials are tested. The performance of materials is then compared across the four assessment methods to note observations and gain insights. Some of the materials are found to consistently outperform others, whereas some materials perform well on one method while performing poorly on others. This comparative study is followed by a discussion that looks at the limitations of each approach and reasons, or lack thereof, for the adoption of one method over the others in industry and academia. Lastly, the article looks at future research trajectories and examines the path ahead for recycling in the construction industry.