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Life Cycle Assessment Criteria For Demolition and Deconstruction Case Studies

Undergraduate #362
Discipline: Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences
Subcategory: Pollution/Toxic Substances/Waste

Darius Bates - Jackson State University
Co-Author(s): George H. Berghorn and Arya Anuranjita, Michigan State University



The U.S demolishes 245,000 residential and 44,000 commercial structures each year, while also adding 143 million metric tons of waste to landfills. According to estimates by the Pollutions Resource Exchange, the removal of all of the currently estimated abandoned residential properties in the U.S. alone could cost the U.S. taxpayers approximately 78 billion dollars. Abandonment has environmental, social, and economic impacts on communities, as does the process of removing abandoned structures. Sustainable life cycle assessments is an emerging technique to assess environmental, social, and economic products and processes. Abandoned buildings are typically removed by either demolition, the mechanical removal of buildings with less regard to material salvage and reuse, or deconstruction. Carefully dismantling buildings maximizes recyclability of salvaged building materials. Deconstruction is an alternative strategy proposed to reduce the harmful and wasteful impacts construction demolition places on the economy and the environment. Deconstruction contributes to controlling the amount of waste placed into landfills through a process of recycling and repurposing building materials. This research proposes a framework for identifying key indicators to evaluate for deconstruction and demolition process impacts, and will accomplish levels of agreement upon stakeholders in measuring the social, environmental, and economic impacts of deconstruction and demolition products and processes. As a result, these applications will contribute to advancing Domicology; a term coined by a group of Michigan State University researchers, referred to as the study of policies, practices, and consequences of structural abandonment. Ultimately, this work will serve as guide used to conduct case studies and propose indicators needed to evaluate deconstruction and demolition products and processes.

Funder Acknowledgement(s): Michigan State University Community Center for Economic Development Staff; Steven Thomas (Director of Summer Research Opportunities, Michigan State University).

Faculty Advisor: George H. Berghorn, gberghorn@gmail.com

Role: This research I performed proposes a framework for identifying key indicators to evaluate for deconstruction and demolition process impacts, and will accomplish levels of agreement upon stakeholders in measuring the social, environmental, and economic impacts of deconstruction and demolition products and processes.

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. DUE-1930047. Any opinions, findings, interpretations, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of its authors and do not represent the views of the AAAS Board of Directors, the Council of AAAS, AAAS’ membership or the National Science Foundation.

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