Current topics, concepts and research priorities in environmental chemistry

Chapter 5

Environmental changes caused by the building materials industry

Marinela Barbuta1 and Maria Harja2*

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Services, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, 47 Prof.dr.docent Dimitrie Mangeron Blvd, 700050-Iassy, Romania 2* Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Protection, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iassy, 73 Prof.dr.docent Dimitrie Mangeron Blvd, 700050-Iassy, Romania; corresponding author e-mail: maria_harja06@yahoo.com
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ABSTRACT
Confronted with the degradation of biosphere, with the air, water and soil pollution, since the last decades, mankind has passed into a new era; the one of the concern for environment protection, characterized by the complexity of environmental problems on a global scale. As an effect of the demographic explosion, and paradoxically, of the technological one, mankind is facing a multitude of difficulties, along with the ecological crisis, of prime material and energy, being urgently imposed the alimentary crisis. Building materials must serve their intended function not only when newly were processed but also for some acceptable length of time. However, the useful life of a material in place, is always related to the particular combination of environmental factors to which it is subjected, so that sustainability, or service life (life product cycle), must always be related to the particular conditions involved. During the past two decades, the risk and reality of environmental degradation have become more apparent. Growing evidence of environmental problems is due to a combination of several factors such as increase in world population, energy consumption, industrial activity etc. The most important part of the energy strategy of a country is energy saving. Because of the limited energy-sources and environmental pollution coming from using the fuels, energy saving has become compulsory. It is clear that energy saving is an important precaution that can inhibit atmospheric pollution, because, the amount of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulates decrease with decreasing usage of energy. One of the main factors that determine the energy policies of countries is economically environmental-friendly energy production. The most important energy-consumption sectors belong to industry and to buildings. Depending on the utilization domain of construction, an important energy save can be realized of a lot of materials which can be used in constructions.

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Chapter 5: Environmental changes caused by the building materials industry The biggest advantage of modern concrete is the possibility of including other industrial byproducts into concrete, an adequate mix and creates new, hybrid materials with tailored mechanical properties to respond to any possible requirements. The use of waste materials becomes attractive as an alternative in the construction industry mainly due to the increasing cost of raw materials and the continuous reduction of natural resources. Considerable research effort has been put to develop concrete materials with large volumes of fly ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag, silica fume, a glassy granular by-product of the steel industry, and also it has been found its use as partial Portland cement replacement but also as aggregate. One of the effective ways to reduce the environmental impact is to use mineral admixtures as partial or even total replacement of the ordinary Portland cement. This strategy has the potential to reduce costs, conserve energy and waste minimization. The concept fits very much into the area of sustainable development. This chapter analyzes the environmental changes in building industry. However, despite the adjustments, the overall outcome remained substantially the same. Based on the feedback so far we have tried to clarify the reports in some areas. We are grateful for the valuable feedback and wish to receive even more. We hope that this manuscript will provide a useful outline of the relevant issues and that it will help determine guidelines for construction activities. Keywords: building material, environmental protection, concrete, impact, waste

1. INTRODUCTION
Building materials must serve their intended function not only when newly installed but also for some acceptable periods of time. This service life may last for the life of the building or, as with paints, for only a few years before renewal. However, the useful life of a material in place is always related to the particular combination of environmental factors to which it is subjected, so that sustainability, or service life, must always be related to the particular conditions involved. During the last period, the risk and reality of environmental degradation have become more evident. These problems are caused by combination of several factors such as: demographic increase, energy consumption, industrial activity etc. (Dombayc, 2007). The most important part of the energy strategy in our country is energy saving and using of alternative energy. Because of the limited energy-sources and environmental pollution coming from using the fuels, energy saving has become compulsory. The energy saving is a significant precaution that can reduce atmospheric pollution, because, the amount of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and particulates decrease with decreasing usage of energy. The most important energy-consumption sectors belong to industry and to buildings (Dombayc et al., 2007). Depending on the utilization domain of construction, an important energy save can be realized of a lot of materials which can be used in constructions. Concrete is a mixture between two main components: cement paste and aggregates. The aggregates, usually sand and gravel, are embedded in the paste made of water and cement. While the aggregates and the water can be easily found in nature, cement needs special processing plants to be produced. The production of cement alone has increased dramatically over the past 80 years due to a continuous increase in demand for
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concrete. According to a U.S. Geological Survey statistic report, the cement production increased, worldwide, from 62.4 million metric tons in 1926, to 3.06 billion metric tons, in 2009. Taking into account that the cement content in normal strength concrete ranges from 10% to 15% (http://www.p2pays.org/ref/14/13598.pdf) and that the concrete industry is the largest consumer of natural resources in the world, roughly 11.5 billion tons a year (Mehta and Monteiro, 2005), one could only imagine the environmental burden the construction industry creates (Arikan, 2004; Koroneos and Dompros, 2007; Blom et al., 2010). Preparation of construction material consumes 24% of global raw materials that are removed from the earth. Principal phases in building industry are: extraction, processing, transport and installation of materials associated with construction witch consume large quantities of energy and water (Viljakainen, 2009). Construction and the manufacture of building products account ca 9% of our countrys annual energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions (Viljakainen, 2009). The life-cycle of a construction material can be considered to have five stages: mining/extraction/harvesting manufacture construction use demolition (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 Life-cycle of a construction material (Perez-Garcia et al., 2005)

From Fig. 1 it can observe that this sector generates high quantities of waste and effluents in each stage.

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2. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS CAUSED BY MINING/EXTRACTION

In the industry of construction materials the raw materials are used in natural state (extraction and mechanical processing) and also as processed materials (in which case they are transformed in other materials - lime, cement, plaster, etc). Among raw materials there are: clay, calcar, gypsum, dolomite, marble, mica, etc. Mining exploitation provides a variety of socio-economic benefits, but its environmental and social costs, if not well handled, can be massive in land conversion and degradation, ecosystem alteration, water and air pollution. In the world, the mining sector is generally thought to be in the first position as source of pollution. This sector generates high quantities of waste and effluents (Twerefou, 2009). Mining, from the exploration to the closing stage, has a severe impact on the environment. Environmental impact can be direct through the activities of: prospecting; exploration; site improvement; extraction; mineral preparations; transportation; post-mining activities and indirectly through the impact of the degradation on the socio-cultural development of communities (Twerefou, 2009). The mining activity determined: air pollution; water surface and ground water pollution; land and forest degradation; noise pollution; solid and liquid waste disposal; generation, storage, transportation and disposal of toxic substances. All these have unhelpful implications for sustainable development and need urgent consideration and an increasing interest. Details on the environmental impacts are presented bellow. 2.1 Air Pollution Different activities in the minerals assessment chain produce gases that pollute the atmosphere. Many mines transport the raw materials to the processing site and use a lot of fossil fuel in the processing process. The combustion of coals generates sulfuric, carbonic and nitric acids and other volatile organic compounds and heavy metals. These compounds combine with water in the atmosphere and come back to the earth in the form of acid rain which can destroy natural and built-up areas, especially materials made from marble and limestone such as monuments. Coals may contain radioactive elements that are released into the atmosphere (Twerefou, 2009). The discharge of these gases has a vast adverse impact on mining communities. The atmosphere is dangerously polluted in this area which hardly chains plants growth. The most significant impact of these gases release is climate change which is the average change in weather experienced by an area over a long period of time. This impact is vast and far reaching hence the importance of reducing gaseous pollutants caused by mining/extraction. 2.2 Water Pollution The impact of mining on the water environment depends on the phases of mining activity (Twerefou, 2009):

Mineral extraction; Leaching of contaminated water from mine residue deposits resulting from mineral processing;
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Voids of closed mine and release of unprocessed mine wastewater. The methods used in mineral extraction could contaminate ground water or surface water. Also, in underground mines, water pollution results from in-situ leaching due to outflow into aquifers and discharge of wastewater. These are serious chemical pollution affecting mining areas. Accidental split open of tailings dam also tends to pollute local rivers and streams used by mining communities. It is important especially in the case when river is the main source of drinking water and many aquatic lives were lost. Water pollution through effluent discharge of mine waste, tailings and the dredging into surface water is a main ecological concern. Small-scale mining activities pollute rivers and streams by discharging solid suspension. This leads to coloration and chemical pollution of streams and rivers that provide drinking water for mining communities (Aryee et al., 2002). Acid mine drainage is also a major environmental problem in mining areas. Acid rain drainage results from various activities, including the oxidation of waste rock containing sulphide used in road construction in mining areas. Acid mine drainage tends to degrade soils, pollute aquatic habitats and allow heavy metals to seep into the environment. One serious environmental attribute of acid mine drainage is its hard resistance which makes it very expensive to clean up. Boocock (2002) reports that in United States the cost of remediation of acid mine drainage, which affects some 20,000 km of watercourses, was estimated at $2 billion-$35 billion in 1998. Water used in mines is from lakes, rivers, the mines water requirements sometimes exceed accessibility. Mining activities use large quantities of water and pollute the environment by releasing effluent and chemicals into surface or underground water. This reduces the quality and quantity of fresh water resources available for use and, has reduced the accessibility of water for communities. If this continues the mining industry could deplete available resources and increase water insufficiency in the near future. On the other hand the excavation of vast surfaces and the creation of large craters, reduce the ability of boreholes, streams and hand-dug wells to recharge, leaving most of them unproductive or with reduced yields (Akabzaa, 2000). The citizen suffers of natural resource, especially water, energy and food has led to unsustainable use of water resources. 2.3 Land and forest degradation Mining, both small and large scale, degrades lands and forests and destroys the vegetation, including economic timber variety and the ability of natural forest to regenerate. It also renders the land unproductive by removing the top soil and doing other damage. In terms of land degradation, mining activities cover vast areas through : Prospecting/exploration activities; Mine site surface services (surface excavations and amenity buildings); Processing plants, storage sheds, dumps and dams, and residential/commercial areas; Water and sewage treatment plants; Refuse disposal sites; Power line access ways;
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Dewatering of active mining operations;

Chapter 5: Environmental changes caused by the building materials industry

Access roads and railways. In the first stage, removal of plants for investigation lines; soil erosion resulting from tracks created by vehicles; spillage and leakage of fuels, oils and drilling fluids which pollutes soils and water bodies; sewage disposal and heavy metal and sediment drainage from waste rock dumps seriously pollute the environment. Surface mining, widely practiced today, disfigures the topography and surface drainage leads to deforestation and soil erosion, dust generation, long-term compaction, subsidence and reduced agricultural productivity. Also, underground mining leads to land subsidence caused by the removal of underground material without backfill. Mineral dressing processes produce effluent, tailing dumps and ponds which occupy large land surfaces (Sikaundi, 2008). Waste dumps and ore stockpiles can also cause land unfertility and the destruction of a series of ridges, the building up of heaps of mine dumps. Though little information is available on land use in these areas, it is most likely that these lands are unsuitable for food crop cultivation. For mining exploitation may be construct access ways. The building and usage of rail and road ways depending on traffic density and types of users could have considerable effect on environment. The access ways built through isolated and random protected areas could drastically affect animals and fishes in rivers become more accessible. In some cases mining in or near aquifer rocks has caused water problems and earthquakes. Stagnant and effluent pools left behind constitute a danger to wildlife and humans and will remain unproductive for vegetation growth for several years and the excavation of open pits causes unaesthetic and failure of land, making the areas very inhospitable to vegetation growth. Mining activities, especially in underground mines and using the caving mining methods, have generated inaccessible hazardous lands vulnerable to subsidence. Forest Degradation. Almost all mining activities result in the destruction and degradation of forest resources. Land clearance for construction in mine sites leads to forest degradation and soil erosion, causing sediment loading in water. Destruction of forest causes a reduction of carbon dioxide retained and the resulting effect of global warming and climate change. Destruction of forests has as result of discovery of surface mining and the use of wood as support in mines. Efforts are under way to address the deforestation problem. In the mining sector to be specific, some mining companies have carried out land rehabilitation and revegetation in an attempt to reduce the long-term environmental effects of land and forest degradation. 2.4 Chemical pollution In general, the mining produces large volumes of waste and chemical pollutants. These may cover vast surface of land and can have negative effects on habitats. Hazardous chemicals used in the mining sector include heavy metal and mercury. These chemicals, when are not properly managed during production, transportation, application, storage and disposal, can contaminate water and soils, a very important habitat for aquatic life and can enter the human food chain with deadly consequences. Mineral extraction is also associated with various toxic chemicals that are harmful to health. Toxic substances such as arsenic, cadmium, lead and sulphuric acid contaminate water and soil, and affect human health.

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Unfortunately, research to ascertain the impact of this chemical pollution on humans is not being given the required attention. Studies need to be conducted on the impact of chemical pollution especially by testing crop fields on which tailings have been discarded for heavy metals as these metals may become bio-available with time and enter the food chain.

3. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF THE MANUFACTURE OF BUILDING COMPONENTS

Buildings are large entities and, as such, they impact upon the environment in various ways. Present-day designs clearly consume large quantities of physical resources such as materials, energy and money in their construction, maintenance and use; but they also can result in effects such as loss of amenity and biodiversity which are much more difficult to assess. In the case to build in ecologically-sustainable manner, or even substantially reduce the environmental impacts of current building approaches and practices, it is necessary to consider the impact of a building over its full life-cycle. For most building materials, the major environmental impacts occur during the first two stages but as wastedisposal problems increase, we are also being made increasingly aware of the impacts associated with the demolition stage. It is apparent that the energy used to produce the building material is only an approximate indicator of its environmental impact. An Australian system, BMAS (Building Material Assessment System), based on life-cycle analysis, has been developed to compare the relative ecological impacts of various types of wall, floor and roof assemblies. Some indicative results are presented in Table 1 (High numbers indicate greater environmental impact; lower numbers indicate lesser impact).
Table 1. Ecological impacts of various types of building material Construction component Material type Timber Frame, Plasterboard Steel Frame, Plasterboard AAC Blocks - rendered Clay Bricks - rendered Timber, Brick Piers, Footings Concrete Raft Slab Timber Frame, Corrugated Steel Timber Frame, Terracotta Tile Impact 7.2 7.4 20.6 49.1 41.9 74.4 5.2 20.6

Walls Floors Roofs

From Table 1 it can observe that relatively small quantities of materials that have high impact (steel) may be preferable to large quantities of materials that have lower impact (terracotta tile). As always, designers, builders and building owners have to seek equilibrium between often conflicting considerations, appearance, comfort, effortlessness of construction, maintenance costs, investment costs etc. Now, environmental impact is an added variable. However, it has been shown that if environmental considerations are
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included early in the design process, it is possible to incorporate them without incurring additional costs. The twentieth century has been one of incredible technological and social change, yet as a general rule, the theme current in the Modern movement in architecture at the beginning of this century remains valid today, albeit for different reasons.

4. THE CONTRIBUTION OF BUILDINGS INDUSTRY TO CLIMATE CHANGE

Due to increase public and scientific community awareness on the environmental impact of the construction industry (Bremmer, 2001; Rehan and Nehdi, 2005; Spaargaren and Mol, 2008) extensive efforts have been put to reduce the CO2 emissions of the Portland cement plants, particulate air emissions, noise pollution, water pollution etc. It was shown that about 480 kg of CO2 is emitted for each cubic meter of concrete (Bremmer, 2001). In spite of the above meantioned facts, concrete is still the most widely used construction material. This is due mainly to its low maintenance, low energy consumption and, lately, due to the possibility of mixing in production wastes from other industries. In spite of minor and temporary setbacks, e.g. freezing and thawing resistance, alkali-silica reaction, concrete is still the material of choice when it comes to severe exposure conditions. Perhaps the biggest advantage of modern concrete is the possibility of including other industrial by-products into the concrete mix (Pavlenko et al., 1998; Meyer, 2009; Barbuta et al. 2009; Barbuta et al., 2010), and creates new, hybrid materials with tailored mechanical properties to meet any possible requirements. The use of waste materials becomes more and more attractive as an alternative in the construction industry mainly due to the increasing cost of raw materials and the continuous reduction of natural resources. Industrial waste materials, when properly processed, have shown to be effective as construction materials and readily meet the design specifications. Considerable research effort has been put to develop concretes with large volumes of fly ash from electrostatic precipitators in power plants (Aggarwal et al., 2010; Karahan and Ati, 2011). Ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), a glassy granular byproduct of the steel industry, has also found its use as partial Portland cement replacement but also as aggregate (Mozaffari, 2009). The huge success silica fume, a byproduct of the semiconductor industry, has as pozzolan and filler material (Ivorra et al., 2011; Barbuta et al., 2010) is another example of this great advantage of concrete. Taking into account that demolition waste generates around 300 million tons of debris per year in the United States alone (Meyer, 2009) it becomes clear that storing these solid wastes in landfills is no longer a viable option. Extensive research has been conducted in the field of using the solid wastes generated by the construction industry as recycled aggregates for concrete (Etxeberria et al., 2007; Berndt, 2009). As with any new concept, there were technical issues involved with the use of recycled aggregates but recent research studies suggest that considerable progress has been made to address these problems (Sarhat, 2007). However, there is a continuous need for further research in this field. Consumer glass waste is another example of a suitable aggregate for concrete. The most important
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issue with using the recycled glass waste is the alkali-silica reaction (ASR) it generates in the concrete mix (Saccani et al., 2010). However, there are good indications that even this problem can be solved. Hundreds of millions of scrap tires are generated in developed countries all over the world and start posing a serious environmental problem. One of the best methods of recycling used tires is to reuse them after rethreading (Pera et al., 2004). Rubber particles and steel wires have a restraining effect on the crack propagation, leading to an increased ductility and energy absorption capacity (Nguyenet al., 2010). Since the cement industry itself, is responsible for almost 7% of worlds CO2 emissions, attention needs to be drawn by construction industry to solve the problem. One of the effective ways to reduce the environmental impact is to use mineral admixtures (Lothenbach et al., 2011) as partial or even total replacement of the ordinary Portland cement (Yang et al., 2007). This strategy has the potential to reduce costs, conserve energy and waste minimization. What if this approach could be also applied when dealing with structural rehabilitation of buildings located in active seismic areas? The concept very much fits into the era of sustainable development (Hall et al., 2010). In 2008, the Romanian Government adopted the National Strategy for Sustainable Development Horizons 2013-2020-2030. The core principle is to engage all decisions makers and the society in taking part to a new approach to sustainable development defining the current and future trends in European Union. The strategy is based on scientific knowledge and innovation in order to create added value and continuously improve the quality of daily life. It is now that new strategies for waste minimization are developed and set in place and the construction industry should bring its contribution. The ideas and principles should be based on solid scientific facts and figures. Currently, there is little research conducted in the field of high performance concrete sustainability. The generally accepted concept of high performance concrete is mainly related to the following three characteristics: high workability, high strength and high durability. The old assumption that stronger concrete is more durable did not turn out to be exactly right. However, all methods and procedures proposed so far to improve either of the above three characteristics involve creating new and better cements, developing of high performance superplaticizers, etc. These, in turn, create a higher impact on the environment and, ultimately, affect our lives. On the other hand, tons of other industrial by-products are stored in landfills across the country. The new stricter regulations demand that something must be done with these wastes. This is where the present research project comes in to fill a gap of knowledge: the use of supplementary cementitious materials (e.g. fly ash, silica fume, anhydrous calcium sulphate based binder, polymers, etc.) together with recycled aggregates in creating high performance concrete. This comes as a helping hand in the field of waste management and, at the same time, offering a construction material that is easy to set in place, possesses high strength characteristics and it is durable.

5. LIGHTWEIGHT AND WASTE CONCRETE

Lightweight concrete (LWC) has been used for structural purposes for many years.

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The density of LWC typically ranges from1400 to 2000 kg/m3 compared with that of 2400 kg/m3 for normal weight concrete (NWC). Some of the techniques used for producing LWC include using natural lightweight aggregates such as pumice, diatomite, and volcanic cinders, or artificial by-products such as perlite, expanded shale, clay, slate, and sintered pulverized fuel ash (PFA). Lightweight concrete has established itself as a suitable construction material whenever the conditions require strict savings in the deadloads in structures and energy conservations and whenever there is an abundance of local lightweight aggregates. The demand for lightweight concrete in many applications of modern construction is increasing, owing to the advantage that lower density results in a significant benefit in terms of load bearing elements of smaller cross sections and a corresponding reduction in the size of the foundation. However, despite the efforts to improve the strength/weight ratio and versatility of structural light weight concrete (SLWC), more research is needed for exploring the potential application of this important building material in structural design. Lightweight aggregate (LWA), can be used for making masonry blocks, wall panels, precast concrete elements, structural in situ concrete, screeding and cladding. Its presence in concrete reduces the dead weight of structure. The cellular structure of the aggregate gives thermal insulation properties. One of the main problems associated with the use of conventional LWA produced from clay, slate and shale in concrete is that these porous aggregates absorb a very large quantity of the mixing (Shannag, 2011). Achieving both the thermal insulation and the bearing structure with a unique material is indeed an attractive idea, which would allow in particular the suppression of thermal bridges present in conventional buildings techniques. The difficulty is to find a material that fulfills a priori contradictory requirements: a low thermal conductivity - for which the presence of void is suitable and a high mechanical strength for which matter instead of void is needed. Among the various types of lightweight concretes that have been proposed in the past decades, those obtained by mixing cement with millimetre-size expanded polystyrene (EPS) spheres are particularly interesting for various reasons. Firstly, it is expected that structural elements in EPS concrete can be fabricated on construction site. This is an important advantage with respect to other materials such as autoclaved cellular concrete, whose fabrication process is rather complex. In addition, it is possible to tailor the properties of EPS concrete by varying material parameters such as EPS sphere size and volume fraction. For this purpose an accurate knowledge of the relationship between the composition and the properties of this material is required. Such relationship can be deduced from series of experiments, but modelling is expected to be fruitful to provide general trends and reduce the experimental effort. It has been shown that these properties can be significantly improved by adding steel fibers or additions (silica fume, fly ash, etc.,) in the concrete matrix or by decreasing EPS sphere size. Miled and his collaborators developed a 2D numerical model to analyze such size effects. Bonacina and his coworkers proposed an analytical heat transfer model to predict the thermal properties of light concretes and validated it from experimental data obtained with EPS concretes with low density, around 450 kg/m3, which showed a thermal conductivity about 0.14 W m1 K1. The demand for lightweight concrete in many applications of modern construction is increasing, owing to the advantage that lower density results in a significant benefit in terms of creating much more elegant and economical structures.
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Expanded polystyrene (EPS) beads of very smooth and rounded shape are a type of artificial ultra-lightweight aggregate (density of less than 30 kg/m3). They can be incorporate din mortar or cement paste to produce low density concretes required for building application slike cladding panels and load-bearing concrete blocks (Bouvard et al., 2007; Miled et al., 2004). The use of lightweight aggregate with low thermal conductivity in the production of lightweight concrete (LWC) blocks can provide an alternative cost-effective solution. Lightweight aggregate can be processed natural material, processed by-product or unprocessed material. With large number of voids in the aggregate, lightweight aggregate concrete possesses a relatively higher thermal insulating efficiency than the normal concrete. Therefore, lightweight concrete has superior properties such as lightness in weight, and good thermal insulation, but has a disadvantage of low mechanical properties which makes them suitable only as non-load-bearing walls. In recent years, there has been focus on utilizing new local and by-product materials such as polystyrene beads and charcoal in the manufacturing of lightweight concrete blocks. Such materials are considered as waste, which are discarded without useful reuse. Development of LWC blocks with high thermal insulation properties using by products and waste materials as lightweight aggregate scan have dual benefits, reducing the cost of construction and providing an alternative safe way of utilizing a waste material. The latter can help in conserving of the environment. At present many types of hollow concrete blocks are manufactured, but with little attention to the thermal resistance of the units. In recent years, lightweight materials, in particular the expanded polystyrene (EPS) block geo foams, have been more widely used in the infrastructure rehabilitation and in the construction of new facilities such as roads and embankments. Numerous studies on the properties of EPS block geo foams and the related design problems have also been conducted. The expanded polystyrene brick plate means a good alternative for lateral, non-structural house closures due to its low specific weight, excellent thermal insulation, low water absorption, good appearance, good adherence with conventional plastering, good open air resistance, easy processing and low cost. The expanded polystyrene brick plates have a lower mechanical resistance than other traditional closures; however, they are resistant enough to perform the function of the external lateral closure of a house with an independent reinforced concrete structure. They allow the quick mounting of an economical house thus providing an immediate and comfortable solution, with non-perishable elements, to low income dwellers. Recently, with the rapid development of high rise buildings, floating marine platforms, larger-sized and long-span concrete structures, lightweight concrete (LWC) has been a promising modern construction material. In comparison with ordinary concrete, LWC shows some excellent characteristics such as lower density, higher specific strength, better thermal insulation and greater energy absorption which can be obtained by replacing standard aggregate totally or partially by lightweight aggregate (LWA). Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is a type of artificial lightweight aggregate with the density of only 10 30 kg/m3. Babua added ultra fine silica fume and fly ash to improve the bonding between EPS beads and cement paste (Babua et al., 2005; Xu et al., 2012). Roy et al. utilized super plasticizer to avoid the segregation of EPS spheres. Liu (Chen and Liu, 2007) applied styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) latex to improve the strength of concrete. Here, few special investigations of the EPS lightweight bricks made by EPS lightweight aggregate concrete
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and the mechanical properties of EPS brick masonry have been reported. The research on EPS concrete can be traced back to 1973, when Cook investigated EPS as an aggregate for concrete. Now, EPS lightweight concrete can be used in varied structural elements such as composite flooring systems, load-bearing concrete blocks, the sub base material for a pavement, floating marine structures, etc. (Wang et al., 2009). Especially, it can be used within the protective layer of a structure for impact resistance due to its good energy absorbing characteristics. The reduction of energy consumption in construction, production of thermal insulation materials and the solution of environment problem by recycling of industrial, agriculture waste, and domestic waste are becoming greater problem (Karahan et al., 2012). They are many lightweight composites that contain recycled fillers, including waste glass, fly ash, kraft pulps from sisal and banana waste, steel slag, light weight crushed bricks, lightweight expanded clay aggregates, foam polystyrene and its waste. Therefore, the development of composite construction materials with low thermal conductivity using these wastes will be an interesting alternative that would solve simultaneously energy and environment concerns. The amount of used tires is very high in every country. Landfill disposal which is the most prevailing method will be considerably reduced in the near future, due to the recent introduction of European Union directives that include significant restrictions on this practice in favor of alternatives oriented toward materials and energy recovery. Furthermore, the disposal of used tires in landfills, stockpiles, or illegal dumping grounds, increases the risk of accidental fires with uncontrolled emissions of potentially harmful compounds. Innovative solution has to be developed to meet the challenge of tire disposal problem. Highway construction provides a significant market potential for waste tires recycling. Extensive studies have been conducted on waste tire modified Portland cement concrete. The literature about the use of tire rubber particles in cement-based materials focuses on the use of tire rubber as an aggregate in concrete and evaluates only the mechanical properties. Results have indicated that rubberized concrete mixtures have lower density, increased toughness and ductility, higher impact resistance, lower compressive and splitting tensile strengths, and more efficient sound insulation. However, some authors suggested that the loss in strength might be minimized by prior surface treatment of the tire rubber particles. The types of the rubber aggregates were: compact rubber aggregates (CRA) and expanded rubber aggregates (ERA). Results have revealed the influence of rubber aggregate type on the material mechanical properties. A recent study investigated the effect of powdered tire rubber as addition to cement paste on both the physico-mechanical and water absorption properties of the cement composite. Results have indicated that, although the strength was reduced, the composite satisfies the basic requirement of construction materials, and could be used for load-bearing wall. Waste Concrete is generated when concrete structures are demolished, repaired or constructed. Waste concrete can be divided into mass and powder. Although a small amount of waste concrete mass has been used as a substitute for rubble in road construction, larger quantities need to be utilized for reduction. A domain in which waste concrete mass can be used is as concrete aggregate. The difficulty is to produce reclaimed aggregate to suit the material standards of beloved engineering utilization. Another problem with this system is that waste concrete powder is generated during the production of reclaimed aggregate. It has been planned that waste concrete powder stabilized by
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hardening and additive materials can be utilized as road substrates. The problem may sometimes be to get a particles distribution that need to standard necessities. Due to environmental constraints materials produced in crusher plants has become an alternative to natural gravel. A large volume of waste rock powder is generated as a byproduct annually from crusher plants. The characteristics of waste rock powder depend on the raw rock; waste rock powder of limestone is used in cement due to its chemical composition, while sandstone is used as a filling material. Waste rock powder is nonhazardous and a valuable resource. The waste rock powder contains large amount of amorphous materials, increases the effect of lime stabilization of soils in which a low amount of fine particle or amorphous material is present. Waste rock powder solidified by a newly developed stabilizer can potentially be utilized as a permeable sub grade of road.

6. CONCLUSIONS The raw material and energy consumed by building material and the manufacture of these materials as well as the CO2 emissions these produce should be given main attention in the last years. Reducing the pollutions caused by construction and the manufacture of building materials by a just a quarter would achieve greater emissions reductions by 2020 than the currently proposed improvement to the energy-efficiency of buildings. As the thermal energy consumption of the building stock becomes more efficient, the importance of construction and the manufacture of building materials will become even more significantly. Once the stock of buildings has been changed completely to conformity with the regulations now being proposed, the carbon dioxide emissions caused by construction and the manufacture of building materials will be equal to as much as 35% of the emissions occurring during use. The best way to reduce the environmental impacts caused by construction and the manufacture of building materials would be to increase the use of wood in construction whenever possible. This should be accompanied with efforts to reduce the environmental impacts caused by the exploitation, manufacture of concrete, bricks and other masonry-type materials as well as of steel, forests and products. Integration of the activities performed corresponding forest protection, coupled with todays processing, construction, demolition and removal methods, provided a practical bottom line on the current status of resource and energy consumption and releases to the environment. In the chapter were identified many areas where environmental improvement directions would appear to be attractive and benefit from further researches. These include:

Design of residential house to use less fossil intensive products such as: steel and concrete. Design of the house passive. Superior use of material that substitute fossil fuels. Extended use of materials producing higher-valued products from less desirable species.

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Improved efficiencies for processes such as: exploitation, preparation, boiler or dryer to reduce energy use. Environmental pollution control improvements to reduce fuel and electricity use while reducing emissions. Increase recycling of demolition wastes. Training the receipt of notices of demolition, renovation, repair, construction, transportation of waste produced in the compulsory arranged especially within the landfill. Inventory of crushing equipment and other necessary equipment for recycling, currently existing in the country and creating incentives for firms to operate the recycled building materials, for these activities to be more attractive. Issuing laws to stimulate the recycling of building materials while limiting the exploitation of raw materials. Increased product durability, life-cycle product.

Many industrial methods for reuse of wastes have been successfully developed and practically applied. Environmental impact estimate is essentially important to reuse waste materials for the construction works. To training society towards waste utilization, related data need to be methodically planned, a scientifically-based risk assessment tool, legal and tax systems which give economic motivation to waste capitalization must be recognized, and the present system should be improved to be environmental friendly.

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