Ecological footprint applied in the assessment of construction and demolition waste integrated management

Construction and demolition waste (C&DW) are the result of inefficient and unsustainable use of natural resources and energy in production processes and other human activities, leading to economic losses. In this paper, the Ecological Footprint (EF), as a new indicator and methodology in environmental sustainability assessment was used to calculate where and how the humans induce impacts on the environment, in particular due to the generation of C&DW. Ecological footprint makes a relationship between two factors - the amount of land required to dispose per capita generated waste. The study proposes the calculation of EF to develop a sustainable C&DW integrated waste management in European countries, considering the methodologies developed for solid waste management. For the development of the proposed analysis, four C&DW management scenarios were proposed based on the actual situation of C&DW in 2009, in Iasi, Romania and Bologna, Italy. The evaluation is based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, assisted by SimaPro software that calculates the EF using indicators like CO2, land use and nuclear footprints. The research showed that the EF could be used as an indicator able to evaluate the sustainability of C&DW integrated management systems in various countries and locations, being recommended as a decision making support tool.