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End-of-Life Scenarios for Construction Products

Updated over a month ago

One Click LCA's Building Life Cycle Assessment modules support three end-of-life settings:

The market scenario is the recommended default unless your chosen calculation tool has specified end-of-life settings that mandate the 'material-locked' scenario.

Market-based end-of-life scenario

The market-based end-of-life scenarios provide the following end-of-life stage emissions:

  • C2 (Transport to waste processing)

  • C3 (Waste processing for reuse, recycling, and/or recycling)

  • C4 (Waste Disposal)

  • D (Reuse, recovery, and/or recycling potentials, expressed as net impacts and benefits)

The chosen end-of-life profiles and their emission values can also be found in the data card if the market-based end-of-life method has been chosen. The scenarios have been modelled with Ecoinvent data.

The processes are tied to the material subtypes, and for this reason, there are no C1 emissions. C1 emissions can be added manually by adding a scenario for deconstruction in the construction site operations query.

Examples

Materials may not always have C2, C3, and C4 data. Two examples of when materials have a partial set of C-phase emissions:

  • Glass wool by default is transported and then landfilled, this means it will have C2 and C4 data.

  • Concrete by default is transported and then downcycled into aggregate, which means it will have C2 and C3 data, see the example below.

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Using the feature See Detailed Calculation Mechanics you will be able to open the data cards for each of the transport and end-of-life processes as well.

EPD End-of-Life scenario

The EPD end-of-life scenario takes the values directly from the EPD when available and usable. If you would like to know which process is used, you will have to check the EPD itself.

Material-locked End-of-Life scenario

The Material-Locked end-of-life scenario calculates C3, C4, and D and follows EN 15 978 / EN 15804. The categorization and end-of-life scenarios come from Ökobaudat. This includes the End-of-life scenario for:

  • C3 (Waste processing for reuse, recycling, and/or recycling)

  • C4 (Waste Disposal)

  • D (Reuse, recovery, and/or recycling potentials, expressed as net impacts and benefits)

This does not apply to DGNB calculation tools, in which C1, C2, C3, C4, and D information is mandated by the scheme and from which the EPD is also taken into consideration.

Material Group

Material Group

Materials included

C3 – C4, waste processing and landfilling

D, recycling benefits

Mineral building materials

Recycling for groundworks

Concrete*, Cement*, Bricks, Porcelain, Plaster, Clay products, Stone, Ceramics, Asphalt

C3: Construction waste preparation for recycling

Recycling benefit from replacing the primary gravel

Metals

Metal preparation and recycling**

Aluminium, Steel, Stainless steel, Galvanized steel, Copper coated, Copper uncoated, Brass, Zinc, Lead

C3: Metal waste preparation

Recycling benefits for replacing virgin metal

Biobased materials with a heating value

Incineration and energy recovery

Wood, Wood products

C3: Construction waste incineration for energy recovery

Recovered energy (replacing average energy production)

Other materials with a heating value

Incineration and energy recovery

Plastics

C3: Construction waste incineration for energy recovery

Recovered energy (replacing average energy production)

Other materials that can be landfilled in construction waste site

Disposal/landfilling of inert material

Coatings, Synthetic materials, Panels and boards***, Insulating materials***, Glass, Window and façade components***

Disposal of inert construction waste

-

* Taking into account concrete carbonization

** Recycling potential can only be reported for metals with shares of primary manufacturing, i.e. if a product is made of recycled material, it no longer has recycling potential. 5% of losses are assumed for recycling (the remaining 95% are recycled).

*** When not included in the above groups

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