Environmental assessment of the life cycle of cementitius roofing sheets with asbestos fibers or with polypropylene fibers

Abstract The aim of this study is to evaluate the life cycle of cementitious roofing sheets manufactured with asbestos fibres or with polypropylene fibres. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) technique and the Assessment of Aspects and Environmental Impacts (AAIE) technique were applied to make a comparative analysis of the environmental impacts caused. In the LCA technique, the atmospheric emissions that cause the greenhouse effect, acid rain and emissions with human toxicity potential, as well as the consumption of resources (water and energy) were determined for all the stages of the life cycle. In the AAIE technique, the impacts on the use of natural resources and the health risks due the carcinogen factors of the constituent materials of the roofing sheets were added to the LCA assessment. Two scenarios were then evaluated, in which the raw material extraction location, the location of the construction site where the roof sheets would be used and the destination of the waste after its life cycle were fixed, but the production locations varied. As a final result, the scenario with polypropylene fibres had a better evaluation in four out of the seven categories analysed. Thus, this study confirms that, from an environmental perspective, the use of asbestos fibres is more unfavourable than the use of polypropylene fibres.