Is concrete bad for the environment.?

Question

any other pros and cons to useing concrete would be appreciated.

Answer 1

It isn't so much concrete itself as the making of it. All the quarrying for the raw materials. The pollution form the trucks, the noise pollution e.t.c. it all destroys habitats and is unsightly. The quarries are dangerous, but they do provide work for locals. However, when they close these people will loose those jobs.

Answer 2

Like anything the benefits outweigh the negatives.

Concrete is literally the bedrock of our civilization.

Concrete underlies nearly everything we build.

Without concrete, we would be living in wood buildings built on unstable foundations.

Cheers and good luck!

Answer 3

Concrete is a durable building material but it is made out of limestone that has to be crushed and fired. That is, it is fairly energy intensive to make it. Steel reinforced concrete is even more energy intensive (the steel has to be forged), but it lasts a lot longer and is a very good material for bridges. We need a better material for roads, and using it for parking lots (or asphalt) does cause problems with drainage and water tables. Concrete isn't poisonous, if that's your question.

Answer 4

Yes! It promotes rainwater run off and horrible drainage problems. Also ugly as well.

Answer 5

Looking around, it certainly didn't do much for the 60's..

other than that I doubt it's an environmental disaster, except for possibly encouraging the growth of conurbations that are environmentally unsustainable. Blame the Romans..

Answer 6

no, of course;because it is just amixure of cement,water and gravel.

Answer 7

YES !

Quarrying of limestone-> degradation of large sites

Heavy material-> generates a lot of pollution associated with its transport

Electricity needed to crush the limestone and the clinker (almost finished concrete) -> increased use of fossil fuel power plants

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Use of coal to fire the limestone (calcination process) :

- release of heavy metals contained in the coal (mercury, arsenic, cadmium, chrome, cobat... and even uranium and thorium.

- the high combustion temperature (1500°C) leads to the emission of NOx (nitrous oxides)

- the sulfur in coal leads to the emission of SOx (which leads to acid rains).

AND ON TOP OF THAT:

Creating the clinker ( CaO called active lime, the main part of the cement) is done through the following reaction:

CaCO3-> CaO + CO2.

Cumulated with the CO2 emitted from the fuel used to provide the energy for this reaction to occur, almost 1 tonne of CO2 is emitted per tonne of cement.

The production of cement for concrete:

- consumes 2% of the electricity in the world

- emitts 8% of the CO2 worldwide

- uses mountains of limestones and coals for its production (in billions of tons).

over 50% of the cement is consummed in China. It contributes to close to 30% of the atmospheric pollution in China.

Answer 8

well if it is, were all screwed baby!

Answer 9

don't think so

Answer 10

C'mon people! "Paved paradise, put up a parking lot."

                                  -Joni Mitchell

It's bad for the mental environment too.

Answer 11

Google for.. was it "biosphere 2" experiment?

Huge waste of millions of dollars and the experiment was a total failure, partly because of uncontrollable bugs in the balance, but also because they learned that

concrete sucked up oxygen,

as I remember.

Biggest problem of biosphere is to balance oxygen and c02, plants vs animals.

Answer 12

Aside from being ugly it prevents drainage of water. The current thinking is that porous materials only should now be used for driveways/hard standing/front gardens.