Toxicity-Based Evaluation of Material Recovery Potential in the Built Environment

Material recovery operations like recycling are now a common part of many product categories, and yet quantifying recycling potential is still a largely unresolved issue. Prior research into this matter focused on market value as an indicator of the readiness of recycling technologies. Although this is an effective measure, it fails to recognize the environmental, societal, and other impacts of recycling operations. Aiming to expand the evaluated factors of recycling potential, this article centers on assessing recyclability from a toxicity and human health perspective. The article describes the development of a toxicity index for recyclability, which is explained and demonstrated in a comparative study of four building material categories. Findings indicate that post-consumer content in synthetic products reduces toxicity and health-related impacts, while recycled content in extracted natural materials increases their toxicity and health impacts. The article concludes with a discussion about the implications of the findings, survey limitations, and future work.