Residential demolition and waste management - An ecobalancing case study

Due to their structure and age, many buildings will be demolished in Germany in the coming years. The present case study investigates the demolition of a typical detached residential house in Southern Germany built in the 1950s. Legal regulations were taken into consideration, and a life cycle assessment was conducted to simulate the environmental burdens of the demolition and monitor compliance with legal requirements. It was shown that 80.3 % of the total construction volume went to landfills, 14.4 % to thermal recycling, and 0.6 % to material recycling, while 4.7 % was reused. In addition, the global warming potential was evaluated for a mean of 96.59 kg CO2 eq per square metre of gross external area. These results show that there is still room for ecological optimization of the demolition and recycling of residual materials from buildings in Germany.