The goal of sustainable construction is to reduce the environmental impact of a constructed facility over its lifetime. Concrete is the main material used in construction in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Therefore, it makes economic and environmental sense to use recycled materials in the making of new concrete for different applications. The objectives of this study are to summarize published research on the use of recycled concrete aggregates in new concrete mixes and examine its implementation in construction and industry in the GCC region. The study showed that while there is reasonable research on recycled concrete, the practical implementation in the region greatly lacks behind, especially due to the lack of economic viability and awareness of such applications at the current time. 1. Introduction Members of the GCC in the Middle-East include the Persian Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The GCC countries occupy the area within the Arabian Peninsula, which is located in the southwestern region of the Asian continent. The strength of GCC countries lies in having 24–40% of World’s conventional oil reserves and about 23% of world’s conventional natural gas reserves. The weakness is related to having an arid weather, shortage of fresh water, and limited farming areas [1]. The Arabian Peninsula is a harsh environment with temperatures ranging between 7° and 47°C, and an average annual rainfall being between 70 and 140？mm [2]. Apart from the oil and gas sector, economy of most of the GCC countries depends to a large extent on the construction industry and infrastructure activities. This is due to recent initiatives undertaken by the local governments to diversify from an oil- and gas- dependent economy. Published statistics in the Arab Construction World magazine [3] indicate that the total value of real estate projects currently under construction in the GCC stands over US$2.39 trillion. However, the limited natural resources in the GCC have a great impact on this industry. Key aspects of the construction industry in the Gulf which have considerable effect on the environment are limited useable natural aggregates for making concrete, scarcity of fresh water sources, and lack of iron ore for producing steel. The Gulf is often seen as a region that lacks many of the natural resources required for concrete production. Concrete consists of 4 main ingredients: water, cement, sand, and aggregate. Water is locally available but is, for the most part, desalinated. While in some countries concrete
References
[1]
M. Jefferson, “Energy for sustainable development: global context and rational options for the GCC,” in Proceedings of the 2nd Seminar on Potential of Alternative Energy in the GCC, Arabian Gulf University, Manama, Bahrain, April 2007.
[2]
M. F. Al-Rashed and M. M. Sherif, “Water resources in the GCC countries: an overview,” Water Resources Management, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 59–75, 2000.
[3]
ACW, Arab Construction World, Vol. 27, Issue 4, April 2009, http://www.acwmag.com/index.aspx?all_lk_id=142&magazine_id=2#.
[4]
The Gulf Today Newspaper, 19 May, 2010, http://p4papyrus.blogspot.com/2010/05/gulf-countries-generate-222-million.html.
N. Kartam, N. Al-Mutairi, I. Al-Ghusain, and J. Al-Humoud, “Environmental management of construction and demolition waste in Kuwait,” Waste Management, vol. 24, no. 10, pp. 1049–1059, 2004.
[7]
N. W. Alnaser and R. Flanagan, “The need of sustainable buildings construction in the Kingdom of Bahrain,” Building and Environment, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 495–506, 2007.
[8]
N. AlNaser, “Towards sustainable buildings in Bahrain, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates,” The Open Construction and Building Technology Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 30–45, 2008.
[9]
O. Kayali, M. Haque, and J. Khatib, “Sustainability and emerging concrete materials and their relevance to the Middle East,” The Open Construction and Building Technology Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 103–110, 2008.
[10]
K. Galbraith, “Structural sustainability in the gulf—fact and fiction,” in Proceedings of the 8th World Congress, Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH '08), Dubai, UAE, March 2008.
[11]
Green Building Forum, Manama, Bahrain, May 2010, http://www.tradearabia.com/news/CONS_174322.html.
[12]
Concrete Sustainability Conference, National Ready Mix Concrete Association, Dubai, UAE, December 2010, http://www.concretetechnologyforum.org/2010CSCDubaiProceedings.
[13]
A. Khan and Rasheeduzzafar, “Recycled concrete—a source for new aggregate,” Journal of Cement, Concrete and Aggregates, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 17–26, 1984.
[14]
N. Al-Mutairi and M. N. Haque, “Strength and durability of concrete made with crushed concrete as coarse aggregates,” in Proceedings of the International Symposium on Recycling and Reuse of Waste Materials, pp. 499–506, Scotland, UK, September 2003.
[15]
K. Rahal, “Mechanical properties of concrete with recycled coarse aggregate,” Building and Environment, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 407–415, 2007.
[16]
K. Rahal, “Mechanical properties of recycled aggregate concrete,” in Proceedings of the Proceedings of the ACI-Kuwait Chapter 2nd International Conference on Design and Sustainability of Structural Concrete in the Middle East with Emphasis on High-Rise Buildings, M. M. El-Hawary, N. Al-Mutairi, K. N. Rahal, and H. Kamal, Eds., 306, p. 299, Kuwait, March 2007.
[17]
N. Z. AlMutairi and A. M. AlKhaleefi, “On flexural strength and permeability of recycled concrete as coarse aggregates,” in Proceedings of the ACI-Kuwait Chapter 2nd International Conference on Design and Sustainability of Structural Concrete in the Middle East with Emphasis on High-Rise Buildings, M. M. El-Hawary, N. Al-Mutairi, K. N. Rahal, and H. Kamal, Eds., 162, p. 153, Kuwait, March 2007.
[18]
A. Al-Harthy, R. Taha, A. Al-Saidy, and S. Al-Oraimi, “Properties of Recycled Aggregate Concrete,” in Proceedings of the ACI-Kuwait Chapter 2nd International Conference on Design and Sustainability of Structural Concrete in the Middle East with Emphasis on High-Rise Buildings, M. M. El-Hawary, N. Al-Mutairi, K. N. Rahal, and H. Kamal, Eds., 318, p. 309, Kuwait, March 2007.
[19]
S. W. Tabsh and A. S. Abdelfatah, “Influence of recycled concrete aggregates on strength properties of concrete,” Construction and Building Materials, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 1163–1167, 2009.
[20]
A. Abdelfatah, S. W. Tabsh, and S. Yehia, “Alternative ways of making concrete with recycled coarse aggregate,” in Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Applications of Traditional and High Performance Materials in Harsh Environments, Institute of Materials Systems, Sharjah, UAE, March 2010.
[21]
I. Gull, “Testing of strength of recycled waste concrete and its applicability,” Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, vol. 137, no. 1, pp. 1–5, 2011.
[22]
F. A. Mirza and M. A. Saif, “Mechanical properties of recycled aggregate concrete incorporating silica fume,” in Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies, Coventry University and The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Centre for By-products Utilization, Ancona, Italy, June 2010.
[23]
M. Elchalakani, “Strength and durability of recycled concrete made from recycled aggregate and wastewater,” in Proceedings of the International Concrete Sustainability Conference, The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association and Grey Matters Consultancy, Dubai, UAE, December 2010.
[24]
A. Y. Al-Ali, A. M. Alshamsi, and Y. E. Hawas, “Structural performance of recycled concrete aggregates for road construction,” in Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Quality Control and Quality Assurance of Construction Materials, Dubai, UAE, October 2001.
[25]
A. Y. Al-Ali, A. M. Alshamsi, and Y. E. Hawas, “Recycled concrete put on the test,” Gulf Construction Journal, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 15–22, 2002.
[26]
S. Al-Otaibi and M. El-Hawary, “Potential for recycling demolished concrete and building rubble in Kuwait,” in Proceedings of the International Conference on Achieving Sustainability in Construction, pp. 229–236, Scotland, UK, July 2005.
[27]
S. Al-Otaibi, “Producing lime-silica bricks from crushed concrete fines,” in Proceedings of the International Conference on Sustainability in the Cement and Concrete Industry, Lillehammer, Norway, September 2007.
R. Taha, A. Al-Rawas, K. Al-Jabri, A. Al-Harthy, H. Hassan, and S. Al-Oraimi, “An overview of waste materials recycling in the Sultanate of Oman,” Resources, Conservation and Recycling, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 293–306, 2004.
[44]
Oman Environmental Services Holding Company, 2011, http://www.oeshc.co.om/.
British Standards Institution, BS 8500-1, Concrete-Complimentary British Standard to BS EN 206-1. Part 2: Specification for Constituent Materials and Concrete, London, UK, 2006.
[47]
AASHTO MP 16, Standard Specification for Reclaimed Concrete Aggregate for Use as Coarse Aggregate in Hydraulic Cement Concrete, American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials, Washington, DC, US, 2010.
[48]
CSIRO, Guide for Specification of Recycled Concrete Aggregates (RCA) for Concrete Production, Ecorecycle, Victoria, Australia, 1998.
[49]
RILEM, “Specifications for concrete with recycled aggregates,” Materials and Structures, vol. 27, no. 173, pp. 557–559, 1994.
