Virgin natural aggregates make up approximately 80–85% of the volume of concrete commonly used by Western Australian councils in their infrastructure. These councils generate a huge amount of construction and demolition (C&D) waste, most of which is sent to landfill. While C&D waste can potentially be used in pavements, only 22% of the total 1.5M tonnes of C&D waste generated in Western Australia (WA) each year is recycled. Experimental tests conducted in the Civil Engineering Laboratory of Curtin University have confirmed that concrete mixes utilizing recycled aggregates, fly ash (FA), and silica fume (SF) are structurally sound. The experimental results have shown that these new concrete formulations can potentially be considered for higher compressive strength applications. Concrete containing a maximum of 100% C&D waste from aggregate has been found to exceed the compressive strength (i.e. 40 MPa) required for most structural applications. Importantly, the potential use of this new concrete in WA residential flooring could divert significant amounts of C&D waste from landfill. Life cycle assessment of these concrete mixes suggested that the mixes using 50% natural aggregates, 50% recycled aggregates, and between 10% and 40% of by-products as cementitious materials have the highest reduction potential for global warming impact and embodied energy because of their higher compressive strength. Between 14 and 21% of cumulative energy consumption and 25–31% of global warming, impacts could be avoided with the use of 50 natural coarse aggregate (NA)+50100 recycled coarse aggregate (RA)+90 ordinary Portland cement (OPC)+10SF and 50NA+50RA+60OPC+30FA+10SF concrete formulations instead of 100NA (natural aggregate)+100OPC concrete to provide the same compressive strength. These two alternative mixes were found to reduce the cost by 7%–18%. The recycling of unused C&D wastes could also provide new employment opportunities and significant improvements in resources conservation, including land and biodiversity. Furthermore, between 90 and 280 GWh, energy can potentially be saved because of the replacement of energy-intensive natural aggregates with different mixes of recycled aggregate concrete.

天然天然骨料约占西澳大利亚州议会在其基础设施中通常使用的混凝土量的80–85％。这些委员会产生大量的拆建废料，其中大部分被送到填埋场。虽然C＆D废物有可能用于人行道，但每年在西澳大利亚州（WA）产生的150万吨C＆D废物中，只有22％被回收。在科廷大学土木工程实验室进行的实验测试证实，利用再生骨料，粉煤灰（FA）和硅粉（SF）的混凝土混合物在结构上是可靠的。实验结果表明，可以将这些新的混凝土配方用于更高的抗压强度应用。含碳量最高为100％的混凝土 已经发现来自骨料的D废物超过了大多数结构应用所需的抗压强度（即40 MPa）。重要的是，这种新型混凝土在西澳大利亚州住宅地板中的潜在用途可能会转移垃圾填埋场产生的大量拆建废物。对这些混凝土混合料的生命周期评估表明，使用50％天然骨料，50％再生骨料和10％至40％副产品作为水泥质材料的混合料，由于以下原因，对全球变暖的影响和体现能量的减少潜力最大。其较高的抗压强度。在累计能源消耗的14％至21％和全球变暖的25％至31％之间，使用50种天然粗骨料（NA）+50100再生粗骨料（RA）+90普通硅酸盐水泥（OPC）+ 10SF和50NA + 50RA + 60OPC + 30FA + 10SF混凝土配方代替100NA（天然骨料）+ 100OPC混凝土以提供相同的抗压强度。发现这两种替代混合物可将成本降低7％–18％。回收未使用的拆建废物也可以提供新的就业机会，并可以显着改善资源保护，包括土地和生物多样性。此外，在90至280 GWh之间，由于用不同比例的再生骨料混凝土代替了高耗能的天然骨料，因此可以潜在地节省能源。发现这两种替代混合物可将成本降低7％–18％。回收未使用的拆建废物也可以提供新的就业机会，并可以显着改善资源保护，包括土地和生物多样性。此外，在90至280 GWh之间，由于用不同比例的再生骨料混凝土代替了高耗能的天然骨料，因此可以潜在地节省能源。发现这两种替代混合物可将成本降低7％–18％。回收未使用的拆建废物也可以提供新的就业机会，并可以显着改善资源保护，包括土地和生物多样性。此外，在90至280 GWh之间，由于用不同比例的再生骨料混凝土代替了高耗能的天然骨料，因此可以潜在地节省能源。