Sustainable Utilization of Recycled Construction Materials in Concrete Applications

The sustainable utilisation of recycled construction materials in concrete encompasses the recovery and reintegration of demolition waste—principally concrete, brick and masonry—into new cementitious formulations. Two principal streams have emerged: recycled aggregates, derived from crushed and graded coarse and fine fractions, and recycled powders, obtained by further comminution of waste concrete or ceramics to particles finer than cement. Both approaches seek to conserve virgin resources, reduce landfill demand and curtail the embodied carbon of concrete. Practical implementation demands careful attention to processing routes—such as thermal or chemical beneficiation of powders—and mix design strategies that maintain or enhance key performance parameters including strength, durability, workability and shrinkage. Advances in mix modelling and life‐cycle assessment have illuminated trade‐offs between mechanical properties and carbon footprint, revealing that optimised treatments of recycled powders can yield carbon‐negative supplementary cementitious materials, while novel combinations of recycled brick aggregates with alkali activation have produced mortars with exceptional freeze–thaw and chemical resistance. The global significance of these developments is underscored by resource constraints in dense urban settings and by policy drives towards circular economy objectives. Ongoing challenges include standardisation of material characterisation, mitigation of variability in waste streams and scaling of beneficiation technologies. Nonetheless, real‐world trials in road bases, precast elements and even marine structures attest to a growing confidence in recycled‐content concretes as viable, lower‐carbon alternatives to conventional mixtures.

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Sustainable Utilization of Recycled Construction Materials in Concrete Applications publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in sustainable utilization of recycled construction materials in concrete applications across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Recycled concrete powder (RCP): Finely ground fraction of demolished concrete used as a partial cement replacement.

Supplementary cementitious material (SCM): A non-cementitious additive that contributes to strength and durability through pozzolanic or hydraulic reactions.

Recycled brick aggregate (RBA): Crushed masonry waste employed as coarse or fine aggregate in concrete.

Alkali-activated materials (AAMs): Binders formed by activating aluminosilicate sources with alkaline solutions, often yielding geopolymer networks.

Embodied carbon (eCO₂): The total greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production and transport of materials per functional unit.

References

1. The impact of waste brick and geo-cement aggregates as sand replacement on the mechanical and durability properties of alkali–activated mortar composites. Results in Engineering (2024).
2. Properties of Cementitious Materials with Recycled Aggregate and Powder Both from Clay Brick Waste. Buildings (2021).
3. Internal Curing Effect and Compressive Strength Calculation of Recycled Clay Brick Aggregate Concrete. Materials (2019).