Economic viability analysis of a construction and demolition waste recycling plant in Portugal – part I: location, materials, technology and economic analysis

The few construction and demolition waste (CDW) recycling plants that there are in Portugal separate the materials and then crush and sieve them prior to final delivery. These plants have limited overall capacity and the quality of the output material is not good enough for higher grade applications such as concrete and brick production. This study aims to better understand the economic implications of implementing and operating a large-scale high-end CDW recycling plant to serve a densely populated urban area in Portugal (Lisbon and its outskirts). This first part deals with the location of the plant, its design and the material entering and leaving it. There follows an economic analysis which leads to the sensitivity analysis presented in part two, which provides important conclusions for the economic viability of full-scale CDW recycling plants. The methodology used can be applied to other locations and resulted, within the regional data frame of the Lisbon Metropolitan area, on a return of the investment period of around 2 years, considering a plant capacity of 350 tonne/h, the collection of 21.8 million €/year in gate fees and the need to pay around €11.9 million €/year in running costs. Hence, there is a high profit potential in this venture, even though considering the high initial investment needs. Moreover, the venture seems economically viable even in the absence of specific regulatory government policy intervention for recycling CDW, which may indicate a clear alignment between economic viability and environmental benefits, arising from this CDW recycling plant operation.