Reusability indicator for steel-framed buildings and application for an industrial hall

This paper introduces a new method for the assessment of reusability of components and structures of steel-framed buildings. It enables classification of various building parts and products through a procedure to calculate, weight and aggregate recyclability indicators and thus it helps to explore their potential to a second life. In connection with life cycle analysis (LCA), such an indicator provides valuable information for the Module D of the European standard EN 15804 and the Environmental Product Declarations. The method is applied on an existing typical industrial hall structure. Five different end-of-life scenarios were investigated for selected components, including recycling of the material as scrap, but also the careful deconstruction with components prepared for future reuse after cleaning, sorting, inspection and packaging. As an example, both cost and environmental burdens are compared in the life-cycle study of a selected girder. The results clearly show the significant reduction of environmental impacts achieved with reuse. However, we conclude that the reuse processes could be made more competitive with further reduction of life cycle costs. The higher reuse costs originate from the quality checks, manual work during deconstruction, storage and long transport distances. Adoption of cost effective deconstruction, sorting and inspection technologies can significantly improve the economic benefits in the studied reuse scenarios.