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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Review of the Use of Waste Materials in Rigid Airport Pavements: Opportunities, Benefits and Implementation
Sustainability, Vol.17(15), pp.1-27
2025
Abstract
The aviation industry is under increasing pressure to reduce its environmental impact while maintaining safety and performance standards. One promising area for improvement lies in the use of sustainable materials in airport infrastructure. One of the issues preventing uptake of emerging sustainable technologies is the lack of guidance relating to the opportunities, potential benefits, associated risks and an implementation plan specific to airport pavements. This research reviewed opportunities to incorporate waste materials into rigid airport pavements, focusing on concrete base slabs. Commonly used supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), such as fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) were considered, as well as recycled aggregates, including recycled concrete aggregate (RCA), recycled crushed glass (RCG), and blast furnace slag (BFS). Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) were also used to quantify the potential for environmental benefit associated with various concrete mixtures, with findings showing 23% to 50% reductions in embodied carbon are possible for selected theoretical concrete mixtures that incorporate waste materials. With considered evaluation and structured implementation, the integration of waste materials into rigid airport pavements offers a practical and effective route to improve environmental outcomes in aviation infrastructure. It was concluded that a Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework—assessing financial, environmental, and social factors—guides material selection and can support sustainable decision-making, as does performance-based specifications that enable sustainable technologies to be incorporated into airport pavement. The study also proposed a consequence-based implementation hierarchy to facilitate responsible adoption of waste materials in airside pavements. The outcomes of this review will assist airport managers and pavement designers to implement practical changes to achieve more sustainable rigid airport pavements in the future.
Details
- Title
- Review of the Use of Waste Materials in Rigid Airport Pavements: Opportunities, Benefits and Implementation
- Authors
- Loretta Newton-Hoare - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringSean Jamieson - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringGreg White (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Publication details
- Sustainability, Vol.17(15), pp.1-27
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Date published
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.3390/su17156959
- ISSN
- 2071-1050
- Copyright note
- © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991149240102621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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