Construction is associated with quarrying as well as heavy transportation of soil and rock materials, in and out of construction sites. Both quarrying and transportation of the excavated materials result in negative environmental impact due to energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Moreover, soil and rock materials of suitable geotechnical quality for construction are a scarce natural resource in some urban regions. These issues have urged the need to optimize the use of quarry materials on-site and thereby reduce transportation. Still, internal flows of soil and rock materials in urban areas have not been well analyzed. This study presents a model to analyze future soil and rock flows in terms of material quality and quantities in urban areas. Furthermore, the study analyses the possibility of recycling excavated soil and rock and thereby reduce transportation and transport-related GHG emissions. The study applies the model to analyze as a case study integrating future residential and non-residential developments and a highway project. The case study revealed that excavated material would be generated in enough volumes to potentially cover the quarry materials demanded for providing stability and permeability to buildings, streets and highway. The scenario analysis showed that provision of strategically located recycling sites for material coordination could reduce the demand for soil and rock transportation as well as transport-related GHG emissions i.e. by 23 – 36 % per area, compared to a business as usual scenario. The study shows that internal soil and rock flows within regions can be modelled by using data from development plans and geological maps. The model results may serve as a basis for decision making regarding strategic material management in urban planning.

This study applied a life cycle analysis approach to identify significant posts for energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with construction, use and removal of an artificial turf field. A chemical analysis of infills was conducted to describe leachability of metals and organic substances. The infill types studied were recycled tires (RT), virgin thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), virgin ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) and recycled EPDM (R-EPDM) from cables and automotive mats. The result shows that energy use and GHG emissions of an artificial turf field significantly correlates with material choice, maintenance and management of removed turf. Energy use and GHG emissions for infills was highest for TPE followed by EPDM. In summary, use of recycled material as infill, reuse of soil and rock on site and reuse of removed turf and infill could reduce energy use and GHG emissions. Leachates from RT and R-EPDM contained detectable concentrations of zinc, which was relatively high from R-EPDM. Organic substances, harmful for aquatic environments and/or humans were detected in all leachates but in highest concentration from R-EPDM followed by EPDM. In the literature, risk assessments focused predominantly on RT while assessments of other infills was less extensive or was missing. The result in this article stressed the need to include all infill types in risk assessments. Previous environmental risk assessments based on field measurements concluded risks with infills to be small or minimal. However, since these assessments are few, this study suggested verification of those results by field measurements.

För studier av miljöprestanda för konstgräsplaner har fokus främst legat på miljöaspekter kring innehåll av ämnen i konstgräsmaterial. Det är främst miljöaspekter kring fyllmaterialens kemiska innehåll och potentiell utlakning till vatten som har studerats. Denna studie syftade till att analysera kvalitén på vatten som rinner från konstgräsplaner med olika fyllmaterial (granulat). Målet var att jämföra och bedöma omgivningspåverkan från konstgräsplanens fyllmaterial utifrån utlakade ämnen till dräneringsvatten. Metoden bestod av kemisk analys av dräneringsvatten som uppsamlats med lysimetrar,  med avseende på primärt metaller och organiska ämnen samt kvantifiering av vattenflöden och den potentiella mängden partiklar från fyllmaterial som transporteras genom konstgräsplanen och överbyggnaden till dräneringen. Efter ett års provtagning och analys av vatten från konstgräsplaner med SBR  respektive EPDM fyllmaterial var slutsatserna bl.a. följande:

• Utlakade ämnen från fyllmaterialen som dränerat genom överbyggnaden och som kan transporteras vidare till grundvatten eller till dagvatten bedöms ha liten omgivningspåverkan.

• Halter av metaller i dräneringsvattnet från konstgräsplanerna var i jämförelse lägre än vad som förväntas påträffas i dagvatten från parkmiljöer med gångvägar och lågt trafikerade vägar.

• Massflödet av mikropartiklar från fyllmaterial vertikalt till dräneringen bedöms vara litet. Det faktiska antalet partiklar och andra spridningsvägar har inte undersökts.

• Analyser av vatten från stickprov direkt från dräneringsbrunn måste tolkas med försiktighet då det inte behöver representera halter för det totala vattenflödet över konstgräsplanen.

Provtagning med analyser kommer fortsätta under 2017.

The peoples demand of functions and services in cities is the driver for energy and material flows. Most people in the world are now living in urban areas. In order to achieve a sustainable development of cities, both resource use and environmental impact have to be reduced. For construction activities, an important aspect is to increase the reuse of construction materials. From a resource perspective, the urban demand for construction of buildings, infrastructure and other facilities results in materials accumulated in constructions but also in other applications and in landfills. The materials can be described as the urban material stock where some materials are used and others are not used, i.e. wasted. There are many cases where material stocks are used for construction purposes. For example, used concrete and bricks, excavated soil and rock from construction projects and other wasted materials such as rubber from tires can be crushed, shredded and sorted to granules and used in many different construction applications. Different perspectives can be applied when assessing the environmental impacts of using stocked material in construction. The overall aim of this thesis is to study the environmental impacts of using granular soil, rock and rubber in construction. For soil and rock, the aim is to study the environmental impact of material management in urban areas. For granular rubber, the aim is to study the environmental impact of artificial turf from a life cycle perspective and from different infill materials of recycled and new rubber and plastics. 

The literature of excavated soil and rock was reviewed in order to identify and quantify the material flows and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the management of soil and rock materials. For artificial turf and the different infill materials, a life cycle approach was used to quantify the energy use and GHG emissions. A chemical analysis of potential chemical leaching from the different infill materials to water was conducted in order to compare potential local emissions to water. 

Based on the results, it was concluded that the knowledge about the urban flows of excavated soil and rock is lacking in terms of patterns, quantities, qualities and its environmental performance. A resource perspective is missing in the literature. However, the recycling of soil and rock can reduce resource use and GHG emissions. It was suggested that models are developed that take into account future material demand and availability to soils and rock. From such information it would be able to assess sustainable management practices and the possibilities of sharing materials between urban construction projects in order to reduce resource use and environmental impact. 

It was concluded that for the life cycle of artificial turf, the production of construction materials contributes largely to energy use and GHG emissions. Differences in terms of energy use and GHG emissions for the production of infill materials are large. The production of new material required more energy and resulted in more GHG emissions than using recycled rubber. The potential release of substances from infill materials to water were shown to be possible for all infill materials analyzed. Previous assessments of local environmental impacts of using infills generally concludes that the impacts are small. These assessments are primarily focused on infill of recycled tires. It is therefore concluded that environmental assessments of local impact should include all infill types. 

Environmental assessments of using stocked materials in construction should take into consideration the material applications´ significance for the environmental impacts at a higher system level. Broader system boundaries in environmental assessments will reduce the risk for sub-optimizations when taking decisions on how materials should be used in construction. 

Construction in developing urban areas implies use of construction materials from quarries and excavation of soil and rock. From a resource perspective, there could be benefits from using excavated soil and rock as a construction material. The aim of this paper is to describe the material flow and management practices of urban excavated soil and rock from the perspective of resource efficiency. A conceptual model for the urban flow of excavated soil and rock was developed and a literature review concerning the management of excavated soil and rock was conducted. The conceptual model was subsequently used to clarify the different perspectives of the scientific literature and knowledge gaps. Conclusions drawn are that there is little knowledge about the quantities and the fate of excavated soil and rock in urban regions. Current research is focusing on the waste flows of construction material and little is known about the overall management practices of excavated soil and rock. Clearly, excavated soil and rock are often disposed at landfills and the recycling rate for high quality purposes is low. There is a need to evaluate the potential for an increased use of excavated soil and rock as construction material. However, the overall efficiency of urban construction material management can only be evaluated and improved by also including construction materials produced in quarries.

Det har funnits lite sammanställd kunskap om miljö- och kostnadsaspekter vid byggande, drift och underhåll av konstgräsplaner. Denna rapport syftade till att identifiera vilka de betydande aspekterna är i detta avseende. Målet med arbetet var att tydliggöra skillnader mellan olika typlösningar och val av material med avseende på kostnader och ställa dessa i relation till klimat, energi och miljögifter/farliga ämnen samt att identifiera de viktigaste områdena vad gäller miljö och kostnader.Metodiken bestod av huvudmetoderna; livscykelinventering, litteraturstudie på fyllmaterial (även kallat granulat), identifiering av potentiella föroreningskällor bland konstruktionsmaterial och kemisk analys av fyllmaterial. I byggskedet så var främst schaktning och användning av krossprodukter, fyllmaterial, konstgräs och pad betydande för kostnaden, energianvändning och klimatpåverkan. För drift- och underhållsskedet så medförde fyllmaterial och användande av maskiner betydande kostnad, energianvändning och klimatpåverkan. Resultaten visade att skillnaden i fyllmaterialens klimatpåverkan och energianvändning vid produktion är betydande för konstgräsplanens totala klimat- och energiprestanda och de återvunna materialen SBR och R-EPDM medför en stor fördel i dessa avseenden jämfört med TPE och EPDM. Kostnaden för fyllmaterialen varierar kraftigt, där de återvunna fyllmaterialen har en lägre kostnad och medför lägre kostnader i byggnation, drift och underhåll. Eventuell deponering av ett avinstallerat konstgräs medförde också betydande klimatpåverkan och kostnader.