Fundamentals of Ensuring the Environmental Safety of Building Materials at all Stages of their Life Cycle

Abstract

Introduction. Environmental safety assessment for selecting the optimal technology of building materials manufacture is quite relevant. The necessity of environmental assessment (environmental safety assessment) of each life cycle stage of any building material (from the purchase of raw materials or the manufacture of products out of natural resources to the disposal of products) has been distinguished as a scientific problem for the present research, alongside, the authors have supplemented the schematic diagram of a building material life cycle with the transportation stage (of raw materials, finished products). The object of the study is a notional building material, and the purpose of the study is assessment of the stress imposed on the environment components by each life cycle stage of a notional building material. This work should foster implementation of more environmentally safe technology of building materials manufacture.Materials and Methods. The authors examined the interrelation between the properties of materials and the quality of the environment using the methods of comparative and system analysis, the graph method and the qualimetric method. Results. As a result of the conducted research, the potential impacts of a notional building material on the environment at all life cycle stages have been analysed — from purchase of raw materials, manufacture and use of products till their processing at the end of service life, recycling and final disposal (the cycle “from cradle to grave”). The authors proposed to take into account the stages of transportation of raw materials and finished products within the building materials life cycle to make a more accurate assessment of their impact on the environment. This approach allows taking into account the entire life cycle and applying the data to solving the environmental problems, such as reducing the amount of emissions, discharges and wastes, thus, fostering saving the resources.Discussion and Conclusions. The environmental assessment of a building material life cycle, should, first of all, take into account the share of its negative impact in the aggravation of the global environmental problems, including global warming, ozone destruction in the stratospheric layer of the atmosphere, formation of ozone in the tropospheric layer, oxidation of water resources and soils, eutrophication of water bodies, depletion of non-renewable energy sources (oil, gas, coal). The carried out analysis allows the authors to conclude that significant differences in the degree of negative impact of the notional building materials on the environment components are observed at the stage of their manufacture.