why is cement considered enviromentely unfriendly?

Answer 1

Cement manufacture causes environmental impacts at all stages of the process. These include emissions of airborne pollution in the form of dust, gases, noise and vibration when operating machinery and during blasting in quarries, consumption of large quantities of fuel during manufacture, release of CO2 from the raw materials during manufacture, and damage to countryside from quarrying. Equipment to reduce dust emissions during quarrying and manufacture of cement is widely used, and equipment to trap and separate exhaust gases are coming into increased use. Environmental protection also includes the re-integration of quarries into the countryside after they have been closed down by returning them to nature or re-cultivating them.

Cement manufacture can also provide environmental benefits by using wastes from certain other industries, including slag from steel manufacture, fly ash from coal burning, silica fume from silicon and ferrosilicon manufacturing, and sometimes recycled concrete from demolition of older structures. Recycling of wastes generally allows reduction of use of raw materials and fuel for processing.

Answer 2

In my opinion as an environmental consultant and a geologist, the biggest reason that concrete is environmentally unfriendly is because it hardens a surface. The largest source of pollution in the world is sediment because it prevents sunlight from penetrating water and prevents photosynthesis at the bottom of the food chain, which affects everything above it.

Concrete affects this because when you harden a surface, the water cannot seep into the groundand can only sheet flow off the surface. When this water finally reaches a spot where it can seep into the ground, there can be more water than can seep into the ground during the event in question. This means that the water must again sheet flow over the ground and as it does that it erodes the earth beneath it, carrying sediment to its base point where it has an effect on the food chain.

By hardening any surface so that water cannot seep into the ground, you are contributing to erosion which is bad unto itself in most cases, as well as contributing sediment to our water ways.

I have seen concrete in national parks which is designed to allow water to seep through it and helps prevent erosion due to hardening a surface.

Also, I have done many assessments on concrete plants from an environmental perspective, and I disagree that the contents in the concrete create a significant environmental problem for several reasons. One, there is only a limited surface area for materials to interact with the concrete and once the concrete is cured, the materials are not mobile. Further, the plants themselves are more likely to comply with environmental regulations and have devices, plans and procedures in place to deal with potential environmental issues such as runoff (one case where hardening a surface is a good thing). Further with the pure chemicals that they have on-site before they are mixed into the concrete, the taks containing the materials are supposed to be bermed (and usually are) with berms to handle up to 110 percent of the materials of the largest storage tank. For the most part the devices, plans, and procedures in place to deal with environmental issues make these plants themselves rather safe environmentally.

I guess my point is that concrete is considered environmentally unfriendly because of the way it contributes to erosion. Sorry for the university lecture.

Answer 3

Who says cement is considered environmentally unfriendly? The same clowns who think that man-made carbon emissions are causing the earth to warm? yeah right.......

Answer 4

Cement manufacture involves the release of large quantities of CO2. I heard that the amount of CO2 released in building the average house in the UK is the about the same as driving the average car 100,000 miles.

Answer 5

Seem to have captured a good response and in addition I would add that cement is alkali and can have a detrimental effect on fishes and watercourses if cement slurry is accidentally discharged to streams and rivers

Answer 6

When one applies cement shoes to you and tosses you over board that is definatley environmentey unfriendly.

Answer 7

it's not the concret that unfriendly but the way it is used!!

Answer 8

I think there's some kind of acid in concrete. Not too sure though.

Answer 9

Because of ASBESTOS content in it , it is considered as envoromently unfriendy.