Municipal solid waste incineration residues recycled for typical construction materials—a review

Abstract

Focusing on the great potential of municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) residues in the construction sector, the applications of recycling MSWI residues in construction materials are discussed in this review. Incineration is a promising method for managing the great quantity of municipal solid waste (MSW). Careful handling of incineration residues including fly ash, air pollution control (APC) residues, and bottom ash is required for this approach. The yield of these residues is large, and they contain many toxic and harmful substances. On the other hand, these residues contain valuable components such as SiO₂, CaO, Al₂O₃, MgO, which are important components of building materials. Therefore, MSWI residues present huge opportunities for potential recycling and reuse in the construction and building industry. This paper summarized and discussed the application of MSWI residues in four typical building materials including cast stone, glass-ceramic, cement, and concrete. Before utilization, three types of pretreatment methods can be used to reduce the toxicity of the residues and improve the performance of the products. In addition, the current issues and the prospects of this field, and the environmental impacts of this application were discussed. It was concluded that MSWI residues can be used to prepare building materials after proper treatment which can improve the mechanical and chemical properties of the residues. The recycling can gain significant economic and environmental benefits at the same time. However, further researches on treatment methods for fine particles are needed.