Reuse of Bricks

Below, you will find more information about the reuse of bricks and the environmental benefits associated with it.

Teacher's guide: 

3. Brick_EN.pdf

VIDEO: How does the reuse of bricks benefit the environment?

VIDEO: How can bricks be reused?

Environmental benefits of reusing bricks

Now you will learn more about how reusing bricks is advantageous for climate and resource consumption. The purpose is to enable you to compare new and reused materials and assess which is best for the environment.

Climate impact

There is much focus on the risk of climate change in our society. Therefore, there is a lot of attention in all Nordic countries on how the climate impact from building materials can be reduced.

The climate impact of a building material can be calculated based on a Life Cycle Assessment; also called an LCA. The LCA is an assessment of potential environmental impacts and is a model or formula into which data (numbers) from specific building materials must be inserted.

Data on the climate impact of a building material can be found in a product datasheet called an Environmental Product Declaration. It is abbreviated EPD. In some cases, there may not be an EPD for a building material, as it is up to the manufacturer to finance and produce the EPD documentation. In these cases, generic data must be used. Generic data are average figures. Find examples of databases here: Sweden: Boverket, Finland: CO2data, Denmark: Bygningsreglementet, Germany: Ökobaudat

For a simple climate calculation to be made, you need:

  • An EPD or other data about the chosen brick material
  • Knowledge about the amount of materials to be used
  • Possibly a conversion of the declared unit to another unit (example: from tons to number)
  • Familiarity with the national requirements for what should be included in the calculation

Duration: 20 minutes

Videos: 10 minutes

Reading: 10 minutes 

Learn more about EPDs

An EPD contains a lot of information. Among the more relevant ones is the 'Declared Unit'. It is also referred to as the functional unit.

The declared unit indicates the amount of material on which environmental impacts are calculated. It is clear that the environment is more burdened when producing 10 pallets of bricks compared to 1, and therefore, it is essential to have control over the quantity of material that the calculations and results pertain to.

 

Example of declared unit in an EPD.