Recovery of End-of-Life Building Materials: Physicochemical Characterization of Asbestos in Fiber Cement Boards

The circular economy is strategically based on the three R's policy: reduce, recycle and reuse, which is not easy to apply to waste for which there are no processes that allow them to be recycled, or others for which reuse is not possible. One group of wastes that is particularly problematic because of its volume, quantity and diversity is the group of construction and demolition materials, including fibrous materials such as asbestos, for which there are still no clear alternatives for reintroduction into the supply chains of new processes. The destination of these end-of-life materials is landfill, with all the well-known drawbacks of limited landfill space, the high volume of material to be landfilled and the associated costs. In order to promote the reuse of asbestos fibres, it is essential to characterise them in physico-chemical terms and to assess how effectively mechanical and thermal treatments can transform these fibres for reuse, in order to provide the basis for a systematic approach to the incorporation of asbestos-containing waste into new construction applications. This analysis focuses on sustainable construction practices aimed at reusing waste materials to achieve significant reductions in carbon emissions over the entire life cycle of buildings.