Building Material in Circular Economy: The Suitability of Wood Waste in Bio-concrete Development

The production of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and concrete, as well as the production of aggregates, significantly increases carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. However, bio-concretes can act as eco-friendly substitutes for conventional concretes making the demand for them on the rise for the many uses they are put to. Construction materials are usually recycled or turned into waste following demolition. As a result, a minor fraction of the economic value and sustainability inherent in them gets exploited by the construction industry. Consequently, the necessity for improving material effectiveness within the resource base will likely rise with the increase in human demand, as it would also be necessary to secure resources for the future. Circular economy (CE) principles may help mitigate the aforementioned problems within the construction industry if they are applied to recirculating construction materials. This chapter presents an approach toward using advanced technologies of implementing CE in the management and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of bio-concretes, which are produced by combining wood waste ash (WWA) in place of cement, wood waste (WW) as fine aggregates and wood aggregates (WA) as coarse waste. Thereafter, the chemical and physical properties, the microstructural characteristics, and the strength of wood waste–based bio-concrete (WWBC) are examined. Additionally, the ecological consequences and perspectives of WWBC production as well as its practical applications as a construction material have been examined to evaluate the effects of the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) and carbon footprints. The circularity of WWBC has been discussed to achieve reduction in material waste and carbon footprint as well as encourage further research to improve the sustainability of construction materials in general.