The life cycle assessment of the ABC (Pvt) Ltd brick manufacturing plant has considered land use, fossil resource scarcity, water consumption, global warming and fine particulate matter formation as the impact categories for assessment, with clay mining and coal as the input flows with the highest significant contributions to environmental load. The phase of clay mining (65.8%) is significantly impacting on all the investigated impact categories followed by brick moulding (24.8%) and brick roasting (9.4%) phases, respectively. Hotspots were assessed to identify potential for resource efficiency and circular economy at ABC bricks, Zimbabwe. It can be concluded that ABC is severely polluting the air with emissions above the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) standards for SO₂, CO, PM and NO_x thus putting kiln workers at risk of respiratory diseases. The calculated Air Quality Index (AQI) ranks CO as the most affecting pollutant with an average score of ∼600. Clay production efficiency was also determined, and an analysis revealed that extrusion and clamping stage contributed highly to the clay losses during brick moulding. Therefore, focus must be placed on these process steps to reduce raw material losses. Furthermore, an environmental waste (fly ash) was used in different weight percentage ratios of 10%, 20% and 100% to substitute clay. The increase of the fly ash content in the brick making process proved to significantly reduce the environmental load among the selected impact categories. ABC uses clay as its main raw material hence the high demand for clay. Strategies should include accounting of used clay daily and raw materials substitution. If ABC uses fly ash from its brick kilns and from other thermal power plant boilers to mix with clay in brick production, then the quantity of clay demanded will be reduced. Using fly ash will reduce rate of clay extraction while at the same time solving the problem of fly ash disposal in Zimbabwe. This circular option will ultimately result in reduced pit expansion, hence reducing top-soil loss and environmental degradation. It should not be disregarded that top-soil loss in turn affects food security. By adopting appropriate technologies, implementing resource efficiency, and designing circular economy patterns, the brick manufacturing sector in Zimbabwe may not only reduce production waste but also comply with enforced environmental protection legislation.

ABC（Pvt）Ltd砖制造厂的生命周期评估已将土地使用，化石资源稀缺，耗水量，全球变暖和细颗粒物质形成作为评估的影响类别，其中粘土开采和煤炭作为输入流对环境负荷的最大贡献。粘土开采阶段（65.8％）对所有调查的影响类别都有显着影响，其次是砖成型阶段（24.8％）和砖块焙烧阶段（9.4％）。评估了热点，以确定津巴布韦ABC砖的资源效率和循环经济潜力。可以得出结论，ABC正在严重污染空气，其排放量超过了环境管理署（EMA）的SO ₂，CO，PM和NO _x标准。从而使窑工人处于呼吸系统疾病的危险中。计算出的空气质量指数（AQI）将一氧化碳列为影响最大的污染物，平均得分约为600。还确定了粘土的生产效率，分析表明，挤压和夹紧阶段对砖模制过程中的粘土损失有很大贡献。因此，必须将重点放在这些工艺步骤上以减少原材料损失。此外，以10％，20％和100％的不同重量百分比比率使用环境废物（粉煤灰）代替粘土。事实证明，制砖过程中粉煤灰含量的增加可显着降低所选冲击类别中的环境负荷。ABC使用粘土作为主要原料，因此对粘土的需求很高。策略应包括每日计算用过的粘土和原材料替代。如果ABC使用砖窑和其他火力发电厂锅炉中的粉煤灰与砖生产中的粘土混合，那么所需的粘土量将减少。使用粉煤灰将降低粘土的提取率，同时解决津巴布韦粉煤灰的处置问题。这种循环选择最终将减少坑扩展，从而减少表土损失和环境恶化。不应忽视的是，表层土壤流失反过来会影响粮食安全。通过采用适当的技术，实现资源效率并设计循环经济模式，津巴布韦的砖块制造部门不仅可以减少生产浪费，而且可以遵守强制执行的环境保护法规。