Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Institute of Environmental Engineering, John-von-Neumann-Weg 9, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland; Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute for Geography and Geoecology, Adenauerring 20, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Geological Institute, Sonneggstrasse 5, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
Waste Manag. 2014 Oct;34(10):1884-96. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2014.04.022. Epub 2014 May 24.
In industrialized countries, large amounts of mineral wastes are produced. They are re-used in various ways, particularly in road and earth constructions, substituting primary resources such as gravel. However, they may also contain pollutants, such as heavy metals, which may be leached to the groundwater. The toxic impacts of these emissions are so far often neglected within Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of products or waste treatment services and thus, potentially large environmental impacts are currently missed. This study aims at closing this gap by assessing the ecotoxic impacts of heavy metal leaching from industrial mineral wastes in road and earth constructions. The flows of metals such as Sb, As, Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mo, Ni, V and Zn originating from three typical constructions to the environment are quantified, their fate in the environment is assessed and potential ecotoxic effects evaluated. For our reference country, Germany, the industrial wastes that are applied as Granular Secondary Construction Material (GSCM) carry more than 45,000 t of diverse heavy metals per year. Depending on the material quality and construction type applied, up to 150 t of heavy metals may leach to the environment within the first 100 years after construction. Heavy metal retardation in subsoil can potentially reduce the fate to groundwater by up to 100%. One major challenge of integrating leaching from constructions into macro-scale LCA frameworks is the high variability in micro-scale technical and geographical factors, such as material qualities, construction types and soil types. In our work, we consider a broad range of parameter values in the modeling of leaching and fate. This allows distinguishing between the impacts of various road constructions, as well as sites with different soil properties. The findings of this study promote the quantitative consideration of environmental impacts of long-term leaching in Life Cycle Assessment, complementing site-specific risk assessment, for the design of waste management strategies, particularly in the construction sector.
在工业化国家，会产生大量的矿业废物。它们以各种方式被重新利用，特别是在道路和土方工程中，替代了砾石等主要资源。然而，它们也可能含有污染物，如重金属，这些重金属可能会浸滤到地下水中。在产品或废物处理服务的生命周期评估（LCA）中，这些排放物的毒性影响迄今为止往往被忽视，因此，目前可能会忽略潜在的重大环境影响。本研究旨在通过评估道路和土方工程中工业矿物废物中重金属浸出对生态毒性的影响来弥补这一空白。量化了 Sb、As、Pb、Cd、Cr、Cu、Mo、Ni、V 和 Zn 等金属从三种典型建筑流向环境的通量，评估了它们在环境中的归宿，并评估了潜在的生态毒性效应。对于我们的参考国德国，作为粒状二级建筑材料（GSCM）应用的工业废物每年携带超过 45000 吨的各种重金属。根据材料质量和应用的建筑类型，在建筑后的头 100 年内，多达 150 吨的重金属可能会浸滤到环境中。底土中重金属的滞留作用可使重金属向地下水迁移的归宿减少多达 100%。将建筑浸出纳入宏观尺度 LCA 框架的一个主要挑战是微尺度技术和地理因素的高度变异性，如材料质量、建筑类型和土壤类型。在我们的工作中，我们在浸出和归宿的建模中考虑了广泛的参数值。这使得可以区分不同道路建筑以及具有不同土壤特性的场地的影响。本研究的结果促进了在生命周期评估中对长期浸出的环境影响进行定量考虑，补充了特定地点的风险评估，有助于设计废物管理策略，特别是在建筑部门。
