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Integrating Circularity in the Sustainability Assessment of Asphalt Mixtures

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  • Konstantinos Mantalovas

    (Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo 90128, Italy)

  • Gaetano Di Mino

    (Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo 90128, Italy)

Abstract

Rising concerns about the impacts that the road engineering industry is imposing to the environment have redirected national road authorities to firmly re-consider the sustainability implications of their operations. Lately, though, sustainability has established a forceful correlation with the Circular Economy and its principles. The road engineering industry, therefore, is moving towards more circular approaches. However, this is occurring without the assessment of the potential impacts of such a transition. For this reason, in this study, a composite indicator, namely, Environmental Sustainability and Circularity indicator (ESC i ), for investigating the potential effects that increased circularity could have at the environmental sustainability of asphalt mixtures is developed. It can be utilized as a decision-making support tool from stakeholders involved in both asphalt mixture production and road pavement management. In addition, in this study, four asphalt mixtures with different percentages of Reclaimed Asphalt (RA) were assessed in terms of their “cradle-to-gate” environmental impacts and circularity, by means of Life Cycle Assessment, and Material Circularity Index, respectively. Their fatigue and permanent deformation performances play a key role in the assessment and distinctive results obtained for the asphalt mixtures with increasing RA% and thus, significant environmental benefits and increased circularity are observed after specific RA% thresholds.

Suggested Citation

  • Konstantinos Mantalovas & Gaetano Di Mino, 2020. "Integrating Circularity in the Sustainability Assessment of Asphalt Mixtures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-17, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:2:p:594-:d:308344
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Johann Fellner & Jakob Lederer & Christoph Scharff & David Laner, 2017. "Present Potentials and Limitations of a Circular Economy with Respect to Primary Raw Material Demand," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 21(3), pages 494-496, June.
    2. Korhonen, Jouni & Wihersaari, Margareta & Savolainen, Ilkka, 2001. "Industrial ecosystem in the Finnish forest industry: using the material and energy flow model of a forest ecosystem in a forest industry system," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 145-161, October.
    3. Konstantinos Mantalovas & Gaetano Di Mino, 2019. "The Sustainability of Reclaimed Asphalt as a Resource for Road Pavement Management through a Circular Economic Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-20, April.
    4. Mateusz Lewandowski, 2016. "Designing the Business Models for Circular Economy—Towards the Conceptual Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-28, January.
    5. Korhonen, Jouni & Honkasalo, Antero & Seppälä, Jyri, 2018. "Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 37-46.
    6. Marcus Linder & Steven Sarasini & Patricia Loon, 2017. "A Metric for Quantifying Product-Level Circularity," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 21(3), pages 545-558, June.
    7. Joanna Williams, 2019. "Circular Cities: Challenges to Implementing Looping Actions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-22, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kartik Kapoor & Nikhil Sayi Amydala & Anubhav Ambooken & Anne Scheinberg, 2023. "Measuring Circularity in Cities: A Review of the Scholarly and Grey Literature in Search of Evidence-Based, Measurable and Actionable Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-26, September.
    2. Konstantinos Mantalovas & Gaetano Di Mino & Ana Jimenez Del Barco Carrion & Elisabeth Keijzer & Björn Kalman & Tony Parry & Davide Lo Presti, 2020. "European National Road Authorities and Circular Economy: An Insight into Their Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-19, September.
    3. Ambroise Lachat & Konstantinos Mantalovas & Tiffany Desbois & Oumaya Yazoghli-Marzouk & Anne-Sophie Colas & Gaetano Di Mino & Adélaïde Feraille, 2021. "From Buildings’ End of Life to Aggregate Recycling under a Circular Economic Perspective: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-25, August.
    4. Abokersh, Mohamed Hany & Norouzi, Masoud & Boer, Dieter & Cabeza, Luisa F. & Casa, Gemma & Prieto, Cristina & Jiménez, Laureano & Vallès, Manel, 2021. "A framework for sustainable evaluation of thermal energy storage in circular economy," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 686-701.

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