use of recycled (waste) materials in landscaping...subject of bachelor’s thesis use of recycled...

Use of recycled (waste) materials in landscaping

In a global context

Bachelor’s thesis

Degree Programme in Construction Engineering

VISAMÄKI

Liu Xuchang

Liu Xuchang

ABSTRACT

VISAMÄKI

Degree Programme in Construction Engineering

Environmental Engineering

Author Liu Xuchang Year 2014

Subject of Bachelor’s thesis Use of recycled (waste) materials in

landscaping

ABSTRACT

In recent years because the sustainable development is getting more and

more attention, using waste or recycled materials in landscaping has

become a trend. MTT Agrifood Research Finland conducts a project with

the EU Life named “Application of LCA for sustainable green cover

management using waste derived materials”. The purpose of the thesis

was to discuss landscaping from the point of view of waste management

and the resources outside Europe. Another aim was study the possibilities

of applications of recycled materials produced by waste management

systems, and to present existing cases and researches on waste materials

used in landscaping in other countries.

The thesis was completed through studying literature. Information about

landscaping was mostly obtained from the MTT library database, and the

information about the project was received directly from the project team.

During the study, materials about composted sludge and biowaste and

their use as a growing medium using in green cover construction in

Europe and China were found.

In conclusion, green cover construction and landscaping could be

combined with waste management well to build a sustainable cycle. There

are still potential materials to be found out during the researches in the

future, not only in Europe but in the whole world.

Keywords recycled waste, landscaping, lawn establishment

Pages 39p. + appendices 5 p.

CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Background ........................................................................................................ 1

1.2 Objective ............................................................................................................ 1

1.3 Methodology ...................................................................................................... 2

1.4 Research Questions ............................................................................................ 2

2 LANDSCAPING ....................................................................................................... 2

2.1 Sustainable landscaping ...................................................................................... 3

2.1.1 Reasons for using sustainable technology ................................................ 4

2.1.2 Key ideas of sustainable landscaping ....................................................... 5

2.2 Lawn establishment ............................................................................................ 7

2.2.1 Methods of lawn construction .................................................................. 7

2.2.2 Factors of lawn establishment ................................................................ 10

2.3 Lawn renovation.............................................................................................. 13

2.4 Growing medium ............................................................................................. 14

2.4.1 Mulching ............................................................................................... 14

3 MATERIALS .......................................................................................................... 18

3.1 List of recycled wastes ..................................................................................... 19

3.2 Recycled materials already used in landscaping ................................................ 21

3.3 Other reusable materials ................................................................................... 22

4 MTT PROJECT ....................................................................................................... 24

4.1 Company introduction ...................................................................................... 24

4.2 Project introduction .......................................................................................... 25

4.3 Materials and methods ...................................................................................... 25

5 LEGISLATION ON THE USE OF MATERIALS ................................................... 26

5.1 Finland ............................................................................................................. 27

5.2 China................................................................................................................ 28

5.3 ABT technologies in England ........................................................................... 28

6 PERSONAL COMPREHENSION ........................................................................... 29

6.1 Criteria of reusing material ............................................................................... 29

6.2 Application prospects ....................................................................................... 30

7 SPECIAL CASES AND RESEARCHES OUTSIDE FINLAND .............................. 31

7.1 Research on application of daily waste used in lawn establishment in China ..... 31

7.2 Reuse of construction waste in landscaping in China ........................................ 31

7.3 Green roof research in Spain ............................................................................ 34

8 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 35

SOURCES .................................................................................................................. 38

APPENDIX: SUBSTRATE USED IN PROJECT LCA IN LANDSCAPING ............... 1


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1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Material is the basic requirement in construction development. Along with

the accumulation of experiences and research, construction technology is

improving, and new materials are being discovered. This leads to the

result that resources on the earth are consumed with the high speed of

developing and material discoveries.

In recent years, social attention paid to the environment is huge. In order

to protect the environment, the methods could be divided into three trends:

controlling of resource use, controlling of pollution generation and dealing

with waste. Because of the limitation of the resources on the earth,

recycling the waste to be used again turns out to be one of the most

valuable methods to manage the waste. Nowadays, recycled materials

have been used in many fields, but in landscaping, many materials and life

cycle assessment are still being researched.

“There are some waste materials which need to be overcome”, “looking

for the most economical ways to get rid of waste” was the thought brought

out by the researchers. MTT Agrifood Research Finland started a project

supported by the EU Life researching on the life cycle assessment

comparing high recycled materials and currently applied conventional

material. The project is named “Application of LCA for sustainable green

cover management using waste derived materials”, and the code is LIFE

09 ENV FI 00570 LCA IN LANDSCAPING. The project was officially

started on 1st September, 2010.

1.2 Objective

The main aims of the MTT project are to demonstrate the many

possibilities to utilize waste materials in landscaping especially in lawn

construction and management, to develop a lifecycle assessment in

amenity grass areas to prove the inference that the use of recycled

materials in landscaping can reduce negative environmental impacts.

In addition, the aims are to provide a cost-benefit analysis comparing

waste derived lawn and conventional processes, and demonstrate that

materials could be used for urban landscaping. (MTT project description,

2012) The MTT Project will finish in the summer 2014.

The purpose of the thesis is to understand the possibilities of applications

of recycled materials from waste management systems, and bring out the

literature searching result of existing cases and researches of waste

materials used in landscaping in other countries.


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1.3 Methodology

This project is to be conducted in a long term agricultural experiment and

demonstration. The work in the project should be done as a preparation of

the new season seeding: counting and weighing the seed, separating and

labeling the sample seeds, recording the exact data during the preparation.

The thesis is to be completed through studying literature. In order to be

related to the MTT project, the application of life cycle assessment for

sustainable landscaping using recycled waste, the thesis was decided to be

studying the reused material used in landscaping. Because of the

professional study limit during the Bachelor’s study, the knowledge of

landscaping and lawn establishment is fresh information. Therefore,

literature searching and material reading is the main method for

completing this thesis. Interviewing professors in the project was also the

method to understand the project.

1.4 Research Questions

After completing the tasks mentioned above, there are several questions

that will be answered in the thesis:

1) What is landscaping, and why sustainable landscaping should be

promoted?

2) How is lawn establishment implemented?

3) What are the potential recycled materials that could be used in

landscaping and what are the criteria for them?

4) How is the “Using recycled materials in landscaping” promoting the

status in other countries outside Finland?

2 LANDSCAPING

When mentioning the concept of landscaping, most people would think of

an exterior visual design. As a matter of fact, besides of the good sense of

art, landscaping is also a science and not only for exterior but interior, too.

Basically, landscaping involves two main parts: softscape, for instance

plants, water body, flowers, shrubs, flower beds; and hardscape includes

sidewalks, streets and paths etc.

Landscaping could some times be a renovation design. There is no

landscaping project that could be done without making renovation to the

initial site. In order to fulfill the client’s requirement, the designer should

do the assessment to the target site and give out a good solution based on

the soil condition and landscape condition. Reshaping is the solution

mostly used when the site is not able to retain the original appearance.


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The description of landscaping in Wikipedia is “any activity that modifies

the visible features of an area of land” (Wikipedia, keyword

“landscaping”). Based on the definition by Jack Ingels, landscaping is a

kind of services industry and the aim of this industry is to provide people

with a pleasant environment for living, working or relaxing (Ingels

2009,xiv), and the trend of changing the definition of a pleasant

environment, we could find out that appearance is not the only importance

of landscaping.

Starting from the ancient times, a good landscaping design should give out

a fantastic visual experience while giving out a good view of nature. The

Hanging Gardens of Babylon could be famous as known as one of the

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World mainly because of the amazing

design of having a green natural garden literally on the building. However,

there was a time when people treated the visual architecture of the garden

much more than the nature, and started to love the modern outlook. This

had caused a big problem of breaking the balance of the natural garden’s

output and input, and a certain amount of human resources should be used

for maintaining and caring the garden. Along with the growing population

and urbanization, conservation of nature is not as easy as it was in the old

times.

2.1 Sustainable landscaping

With the threats from the environment destroying, sustainability is one of

the important theories for development. The definition of sustainable

development, development which meets the needs and aspirations of

current generations without compromising those of further generations, is

defined by The World Conference of Environment Department (WCED)

in 1987. We can conclude that key words for sustainable development are

concern about the environment, thinking of the future, creating a better

living standard. Therefore, there are four factors which have to be ensured

while doing sustainable development in practice:

1) Development

Development is an eternal theme of the humanity. For developing

countries, one of the main reasons for environmental degradation is

poverty, with only development could improve the living standard and

provide the solution for the ecological crisis.

2) Sustainability

Sustainability means that the economic development should be

maximized with the condition of conserving the resources and the living

standard. In order to provide a bigger possibility for the future

development, the utilization of the environmental resources should be

limited under the ecological carrying capacity.

3) Equitability


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Equitability means the equality of development opportunity both for the

current generation and between the generations. The priority target for

the current generation to reach the equitability is end the poverty.

Conserving the natural resources is the way to protecting the equal

opportunity for next generations to use the limited resources on the earth

to reach the equitability between the generations.

4) Overall Coordination

Overall Coordination means the coordination of economic development

and environmental protection. The theory of sustainable development

involves the interdependence of development and protection of

environment.

After the phrase “sustainable development” became known, the ideal of

“sustainable design” had started to spread and make the theory of

sustainable development become a reliable possibility.

2.1.1 Reasons for using sustainable technology

1) Overuse of energy

According to the research by The World Resources Institute, from

1900 to 1990, the development of industry had used 20% of non-

renewable resources. Based on this using rate, those resources only

could be used for 110 years. However, the population had boomed

during 1990-2013, and the industrial producing rate had also increased,

the resources on the earth would only supporting the development for

approximately 30 years. Therefore, overuse of energy is one of the

most important reasons for keeping eco-system and use sustainable

technology. Figure 1 shows the projected growth in global energy use

in 1995-2010.


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Figure 1 Projected Growth in Global Energy Use, 1995-2010 (Source: International

Energy Agency, World Energy Outlook (Organisationf or Economic Co-

Operation and Development, Paris, 1996), pp. 237-285)

2) Learn from the natural and traditional technology

The natural eco-system is a very stable system without the influences

from human. How to make the complicated system work is the main

thing we need to learn during our development and research. The

traditional way of designing has been tested by the long history, and

should be worth to learn.

3) The root reason for environment deterioration

The economic activities to maintain the rich life and large number of

energy consumption is the root cause for developed countries, while in

developing countries, the rapid rate of population growth and

unbalanced economic development is the reason. Economic

development inevitably gave impetus to the development of

construction industry. However, the construction industry is very

closely related to global warming, ozone depletion, energy

consumption, waste generation and soil and water pollution.

2.1.2 Key ideas of sustainable landscaping

Nowadays, people are more and more aware of the importance of the

environment and protecting nature. The nature is a cycle, it could keep

working without strip mining, release poisons into the atmosphere and

even does not need to consume great amount of fuels. It has remained a

very healthy system for a thousand years already. Therefore, the trend of

landscaping starts to change the direction into sustainable landscaping, and

tries to conserve the nature as it was.

According to the survey results presented by the American Institute of

Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) annual meeting

in Los Angeles in 2006. They researched 1000 participants and did an

online questionnaire. There are some key points of sustainable design:

regional and community design; land use and site ecology; relevant

biological and climatic design; sun and air; water circulation; energy flows

and energy scenarios; materials; building maintenance of the structure and

construction; longer life and living comfort and so on. It’s easy to divide

the sustainable design into two main parts:

1) Technology:

It could also be called as “Green Technology”, which means

decreasing the environmental burden as much as possible, cutting

down the raw material and natural resources requirement and reducing

environmental pollution. For example, you have to consider

recyclability, maintainability and reusability of the construction in


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order to make the target environmentally friendly while keeping it

working with basic functions.

2) Humanities:

Sustainable design mainly has three targets: protecting the

environment, promoting economic efficiency and creating the

harmony of the human and nature.

Sustainable landscaping does not have a common simple formula. It could

be either formal or informal, geometric or naturalistic, simple or complex.

(Dell, 2009, 10). However, it still has several key ideas to reach the target

of sustainable landscaping:

1) Living system: Nature is a living, functioning ecosystem formed by

some subsystems working together. To explain the living system, here

are some examples of a living system: human or animal body, a forest,

an ocean etc. Living system is a system which could smoothly operate

as a whole. When the landscape is a highly functioning system

patterned after the ways of nature, it will work like the nature system,

which means that you don’t need too much control or maintenances,

the system will work on its own without disturbing other living

systems. (Dell, 2009,10)

2) Homeostasis: In order to reach the goal of stability, homeostasis could

be a key word. It’s the balance of forces to keep the living system

operate and none of these forces would cause harm to the system. Just

like the lake, if no overfishing takes place in the lake, it will keep the

balance of the perfect ecosystem, with only a little care, everything is

fine. (Dell, 2009,10)

3) Deep design: As mentioned in the last chapter, in the city, because of

the urbanization and population growth, homeostasis of a living

system won’t be formed as the nature. Therefore, it needs a design

with a beautiful appearance and good functionality. (Dell, 2009,10)

4) Cyclical design: In the natural systems, for example forest, nothing in

the system could be treated as waste. Everything in the nature is

recycled. Usually manmade systems are linear. However, the ancient

cyclical system is the only way to keep the resources of the nature and

reach the goal of sustainability.(Dell, 2009,11)

5) Harmony with the local environment: There is usually some local

condition when designing a new landscape for example, particular soil

type, microclimate, exposure and some other factors. ( Dell, 2009,11)

6) Careful management of inputs and outputs: For a sustainable

landscape, minimizing the inputs and outputs could make that the

effects are beneficial. (Dell, 2009,11)

7) Consideration of on-site effects: The on-site situation should be

carefully considered when the design starts. The designer should make


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sure of the natural features of all materials are preserved and all new

elements should play a beneficial role such as making oxygen,

sequestering carbon, providing food, improving the climate inside

dwelling, preventing erosion or protecting against wildfire. The

negative effects to the landscape should be minimized as well.(Dell

2009,11)

8) Consideration of off-site effects: These mean to keep the source of

materials is safe, and also ensure the safety of the workers on-

site.(Dell 2009,11)

2.2 Lawn establishment

As mentioned above, landscaping has two parts: hard-scaping and soft-

scaping. In order to build a sustainable landscape, maintaining the natural

living system is one of the main key ideas. In this case, lawn establishment

should be introduced.

A successful lawn establishment should contain nine steps starting with

the soil test. The steps of lawn establishment includ soil test, preparing the

soil, rough grading of the site, amending the soil, final grading of the soil,

applying a starter fertilizer, spreading seed, spreading mulch and post-

seeding care such as irrigation. (Stier, 2000,4-6)

2.2.1 Methods of lawn construction

There are four main options for lawn installation: sowing, sodding,

plugging and sprigging and stolonizing. These methods could be used

based on the site situation, species of grass, the budget of the projet and

the time for establishment.

1) Sowing

Sowing is the cheapest way of lawn construction. Because of this

feature, this method of lawn installation is used quite commonly. On a

small site, seeding could be operated by hand or a spreader, but for a

large site or sloped site, it would be hard to install the lawn by hand or

a spreader. In this case, there are some different devices that could be

used in different situations. On the large site, a cultipacker seeder

(Figure 2) is a good choice for speeding up the installation. There is

also a hydroseeder that could be used on the large site for the

efficiency, especially when there is a sloped site. The hydroseeder

(Figure 3) uses spraying devices that spread the seeds, water, fertilizer

and mulch at the same time. Although this method is a less expensive

way of lawn installation, the time period for the turf to grow needs

great patience. (INGELS, 2003,326)


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Figure 2 Cultipacker seeder from Kasco (http://www.iowafarmequipment.com/)

Figure 3 Using the hydroseeder to provide an efficiency seeding for the slope.

(http://www.coaleducation.org/technology/Reclamation/hydroseeder.htm )

2) Sodding

When the time budget for the target can’t wait for the whole period of

grass growing, it is possible to choose another way to move a piece of

turf to the target site. This method is called sodding. Using a sod

cutter (Figure 4) to cut the turf into strips alone with a thin layer of the

soil from the field. Then they are lifted and rolled up. After the

transportation, the turf strips can be transferred to the target site, and

the new lawn could be set up by carefully unrolling the turf strips and

fitting them to the soil bed. Sodding is a bit more expensive than

seeding. However, it’s still a very common way to establish a lawn

because of avoiding the long period of waiting for the lawn to grow

by itself. The amount of the lawn could be guaranteed and for some

http://www.iowafarmequipment.com/

http://www.coaleducation.org/technology/Reclamation/hydroseeder.htm


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sites where the seed could be easily washed away, sodding could be a

very good choice to establish a lawn. (INGELS, 2003, 326-327) This

is a very good method especially in erosion-proof places.

Figure 4 Ryan Heavy-Duty Sod Cutter

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/schillergroundscare/3727702022/)

3) Plugging

For some warm areas such as Southern part of China, Southern United

States and so on, they have another choice to establish a lawn. It is

plugging. Besides of using a lot of working forces to cut the turf strips

and prepare the soil bed, plugging only needs to plug the living grass

with some organic materials into the target soil (Figure 5). After that

there is nothing to do except watering the field well. Although it’s

quicker than seeding the field and easier and cheaper to practice than

sodding, this method also has some limitations. First of all, it needs

plenty of warmth to grow the field from only a few grass plugged.

That is the reason why countries with mostly cold weather, like

Finland, cannot use this method to establish the lawn. Also, even for

some Southern countries, this method can only be used in the grass

growing season. (INGELS, 2003, 327-328)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/schillergroundscare/3727702022/


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Figure 5 Target site after plugging the living grass and organic materials (Sources:time

2:43 from the video http://www.proplugger.com/videos/lawn-plugging)

4) Sprigging and stolonizing

Some warm-season grasses cannot be established with seed. Sprigs

and stolons refer to pieces of aboveground or belowground grass

stems for creeping grasses (University of California Agriculture &

Natural Resources). A sprig is different from plugs and sod turf. It

does not have soil attached and they are planted to the soil which has

been prepared and conditioned. For some big areas, the process could

be done mechanically. (INGELS, 2003, 328)

2.2.2 Factors of lawn establishment

When a lawn is being installed, there will be many factors affecting the

establishment, for instance, sunshine, climate, precipitation, soil condition

and fertilizations. But those factors cannot be changed by human, like

sunshine and rain drops are factors caused by the nature. Here are some

factors which could be determined by artificial conditioning and

management.

1) Soil

Soil is the basic ingredient for the lawn establishment. There are

several different soil profiles on turfgrass area, which could be

classified into two main categories: Natural Profile and Artificial

Profile.

Natural Profile

Natural profile is a typical profile under turfgrass which is formed

naturally. There are organic horizons at the surface and beneath the

organic horizons there is an Ap horizon which consists of plow layer

http://www.proplugger.com/videos/lawn-plugging


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and topsoil. This is shown in Figure 6 (A). The surface layer is called

thatch, its thickness depends on various factors, such as the species of

grass, the age of the turf and also some environmental factors. (D.V.

Waddington, R.N.Carrow, and R.C.Shearman, 1992, 331)

Artificial Profile

For some areas which do not fulfill the requirements for the grass to

grow, there could be some physical modification to improve the

growing condition of the soil. Especially for some trafficked turf area,

it is common to make the artificial profile for the turf manufacture.

There are a variety of artificial profiles that could be chosen. This

depends on the typical target lawn.

As Figure 6 (B) shows, there is one possibility to use the modified

topsoil directly replacing the initial topsoil on subsoil. It is also

possible to add some physical amendments into the layer of subsoil,

which is also called B horizon. Usually a drainage blanket of gravel or

crushed rock is placed beneath the topsoil to accelerate the movement

of drainage water as in Figure 6 (C). In some cases there would be a

sand layer between the modified topsoil and drainage blanket layer to

restrict movement of fines from topsoil into the next layer as shows in

Figure 6 (D). As shown in Figure 6 (E), there are also some cases

using sands as growing media. In this case, sand may be placed

directly on the subsoil or using a plastic barrier between the sand layer

and subsoil to increase water retention.( D.V. Waddington,

R.N.Carrow, and R.C.Shearman, 1992, 332)

Figure 6 Soil Profiles found on turfgrass areas (Sources: Turfgrass, D.V.Waddington,

R. N. Carrow, and R. C. Shearman, 1992, 332)

2) Nutritional Requirements and Fertilization

Nitrogen (N)


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Reports from researches have shown that nitrogen can give many

effects on the turfgrass, such as color, density, shoot growth, root

growth, susceptibility to diseases and environmental stress,

composition of the turfgrass sward, and recuperative ability. Using

sources providing N in a readily available form can speed up the

growth of the turfgrass establishment (D.V. Waddington, R.N.Carrow,

and R.C.Shearman, 1992, 388). Nitrogen fertilization has been

reported to improve the wear tolerance of turfgrasses, up to a threshold

whereby additional N will deteriorate it (Leyer & Skirde 1980, 25-31;

Canaway 1984, 19-26). Nitrogen can also give an aid to a turfgrass

from drought, herbicide injury, winter dormancy, scalping and

centipedegrass decline (D.V. Waddington, R.N.Carrow, and

R.C.Shearman, 1992, 389).

Currently, the most acceptable classification for Nitrogen Sources is

quickly available fertilizer and slowly available fertilizer. Nitrogen

sources which release quickly, which are soluble in water or the form

containing nitrogen in NO3 or NH4 form are usually called quickly

available fertilizers. This kind of fertilizer includes inorganic salts,

urea and ureaformaldehyde products. Inorganic salts refers to the

fertilizers including (NH4)2SO4, NH4NO3 and several ammonium

phosphates, which could solve in the water and be applied in dry form

or liquid delivery systems. Urea is produced by the ammonia gas and

CO2 reacting together. Ureaformaldehyde products is a generic name

for several methylene urea polymers which are a condensation product

of urea with formaldehyde (D.V. Waddington, R.N.Carrow, and

R.C.Shearman, 1992, 391-405). Slowly available N sources include

the sources containing nitrogen in an insoluble form or a water soluble

source encapsulated in an impermeable coating. Natural organics are

used as a fertilizer as a slowly release N source, for example some

waste products from food processing industry and sewage sludge

which contains some nitrogen. (D.V. Waddington, R.N.Carrow, and

R.C.Shearman, 1992, 391-405)

Potassium (K)

Although potassium does not directly exist in any plants’ molecular

structure, it is still essential for photosynthesis, carbonhydrate and

protein formation, water relationships and enzymatic activity and

many other plant functions. (D.V. Waddington, R.N.Carrow, and

R.C.Shearman, 1992, 405)

On the side of lawn establishment, there are not many reports showing

that potassium is a critical element. However, contrary to the

establishment, there are many researches which confirm the K

applications for the maintenance of turf. In the maintenance, the K

application responses include growth, disease incidence and weed

encroachment; tolerances to environmental stress and wear; and also

general aesthetic quality. (D.V. Waddington, R.N.Carrow, and

R.C.Shearman, 1992, 407-410)

Phosphorus (P)


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Phosphorus is playing an essential role in energy transformations, and

it is usually required for photosynthesis, the interconversion of

carbohydrates, fat metabolism, oxidation reactions. It is required as a

component of genetic material. However, the required amount of

phosphorus is smaller than that of nitrogen and potassium. (D.V.

Waddington, R.N.Carrow, and R.C.Shearman, 1992, 411)

Calcium (Ca)

Calcium is a component of enzyme and amylase, and it's also a very

important component of the middle lamella of cell walls. Hence,

calcium plays an important role in meristematic activity. The existing

amount level of calcium is similar to phosphorus. (D.V. Waddington,

R.N.Carrow, and R.C.Shearman, 1992, 416)

Magnesium (Mg), Sulfur (S), Micronutrients, Nonessential elements

Except for the elements listed above, magnesium and sulphur have

more or less some effect on the turfgrass establishment or

maintenances. Although the tissue levels of Mg in turf grass are lower

comparing with Ca and P, and sulfur is even not noticed much in the

researches. The role of enzymes as a fertilizer in lawn is still countable.

As well as micronutrients such as iron and zinc etc, they are also

playing as an important enzyme of the plants growing. (D.V.

Waddington, R.N.Carrow, and R.C.Shearman, 1992, 416-425)

3) Water requirements and irrigation

The water requirement is different in different situations. Water

available for plants growing is limited, and the problem of watering

varies from absolute desiccation to submersion. Precipitation and

product needs at a certain area affects the requirement amount. Except

of those, moisture of soil, mowing, fertilization, soil compaction,

growth regulators and anti-transpirants are also effectors to the water

use determination.

2.3 Lawn renovation

Renovation is a practice to cure a lawn which is in a poor condition to an

acceptable quality. Lawns could be destroyed by many reasons. Some of

the reasons are manmade, such as poor management, but some reasons are

because of natural impacts, for instance, climate, diseases, insects or

environmental damage. Replacing the failing lawn with a new one could

always be a solution. However, because of the huge work of changing the

lawn head to toe not only needs a lot of work but is costly, only if the lawn

is infested with difficult-to-control plants such as quackgrass, the complete

renovation won’t be the first choice for the destroyed lawn. (Stier 2000, 1)


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The renovation plan could be determined by the condition of the existing

lawn, and the reason why the lawn is failing is also very important criteria

in choosing the method. For the lawns which have the problem of poor

management, as the normal solving theory, there should be a series of

management practice to fix. There are three basic rules that could always

be tried in the beginning: avoiding removing over one third of the leaf

blade at a time when mowing; applying the right fertilizer three or four

times to help thicken the turf; and irrigating during dry spells to keep a turf

thriving and minimize weed and pest problems. For the situation caused

by insects or some diseases, the first thing to do is finding out the root

problem. Excess thatch is always a good place for insects’ multiplication.

Therefore, preventing the thatching growing by compacting soil could be a

feasible way. Following the requirement of water needing and fertilizer

using in different situations after dealing with the initial problem, most of

the lawns could be saved. (Stier 2000, 7)

2.4 Growing medium

Along with the lawn establishment, interior gardening and municipal

landscaping are also a very big part of landscaping. There are always some

situations of the soil or target site that cannot fit the growing condition for

the plants. Especially for interior landscaping design, most of the time

there is not enough soil or enough nutrients in the soil for growing the

target plant. In this case, the growing medium is significant.

The growing medium in the general understanding is a liquid or gel

providing a growing environment for the certain target. There are nutrient

media, minimal media, selective media, differential media and transport

media as known as the types of growing media. However, the nutrient

media is the most common use in landscaping. Combining of the

nutritional requirement of the target plant (lawn, bushes or trees), the soil

condition and other environmental effectors, the growing media could be

prepared.

Besides of the common understanding of the growing media, a fertilizer

could also be treated as a growing media for the plants. However, mulch is

another important branch of growing medium .

2.4.1 Mulching

A mulch is used as a layer on the surface to reach the idea of conserving

moisture or improving the fertility and health of the soil or reducing weed

growth or enhancing the visual appeal of the area, even reaching the

purpose of all of the above.

Because of the different purposes and different soil conditions, there is a

variety of materials used for mulching. Here we can divide it into two big

categories: organic mulching and inorganic mulching.


15

1) Organic mulching

The organic mulching can decay as time goes by. Hence, it will

improve the soil condition when the mulch decomposes, for instance

the soil pH can be affected depending on the organic mulching use.

Here is the list of the common organic mulching used in landscaping.

Leaves

Leaves as organic mulching are mostly falling from deciduous trees,

and collected in the autumn. After drying up and the shredding process,

the leaves are used to protect the plants from freezing in the cold

winter, and removed during spring comes.

Grass clippings

Similar to leaves used as organic mulching, grass clipping is from the

plant itself. The grass clipping collected from the mowed lawn,

because the rotting fresh grass clippings can damage plants, it usually

is dried up before the application. However, the fresh green grass

clipping has a high content of nitrate, and it will be returned to the soil

when it is being used as mulch directly. (Jauron, 2013) Figure 7 below

shows grass clipping mulch.

Figure 7 Grass clipping mulch (sources: University of Minnesota sustainable urban

landscape information series)

Peat moss

Different from the leave mulch and the grass clipping, peat moss is

long lasting mulch, and that’s the reason it is very popular mulch

used as organic mulch. Because of the ability to lower the pH of the

soil surface, peat moss is commonly used in the growing soil of acid

love plants.


16

Wood chips

Wood chips are a byproduct of cutting trees or utilizing the wood

waste. This kind of mulch is used to conserve soil moisture,

moderate soil temperature and suppress weed growth. In the

landscape with a dominant feature, arborist wood chips could be one

of the best mulch choices for trees and shrubs. In many urban areas,

using arborist wood chips is free of charge. Comparing with leaves

and grass, wood chips are slow decomposers. Therefore, wood chips

will supply nutrients slowly to the system. (Chalker-Scott 2007)

Figure 8 below shows wood chips mulch.

Figure 8 Wood chips mulch (http://painlessgarden.com/?p=627)

Straw mulch

Straw mulch is mostly used in veggie gardens because of its

characteristics. Straw is lightweight and easy to use and it could last

over summer. After breaking down within months, it could provide

valuable organic material to the soil. (Green Life Soil Co. 2012)

Cardboard

Cardboard or newspaper could be used as mulches for improving

the weed suppressant and retaining properties of the mulch. Because

the cardboard could be blown away by wind, there is some heavier

mulch used as a corporate together.

2) Inorganic mulching

Contrary to organic mulching, inorganic mulching won’t break down

into nutrients or other organic material improving the soil. On the

bright side, they don’t need to be replenished regularly like organic

mulches. Still, inorganic mulches could help with all the physical

effects other mulches could provide, such as retaining moisture in the

soil, keeping soil temperatures.

http://painlessgarden.com/?p=627


17

Rubber mulch

The material for rubber mulch is from recycled tires. Rubber mulch

could be provided in nuggets or shredded styles. With the good

performance of moisture retaining, and reducing bacterial and fungal

growth, rubber mulch is very popular in landscaping, and it does not

need management very often because of its long lasting feature.

Rubber mulch is wildly used in some landscaping with slopes, because

of its great traction. However, it can leach some chemicals into the

ground and the other side of great moisture retaining is that the water

can’t pass through the mulch layer, and causing some effects on

irrigation. Figure 9 below shows a rubber mulch.

Figure 9 Rubber mulch (http://ae-i.com/black-mulch-2324x1556-rubber-mulch-for-

home-amp-play-grounds-crying-earth/images/high-resolution-33450/)

Plastic mulch

Plastic mulch is very popular both in the field of agriculture and

landscaping. It can provide a barrier to keep methyl bromide and also

it can help with controlling the soil temperature. As for the same

reason as rubber, plastic could make some contribution to soil

moisture retention, due to the barrier of evaporation, the plastic mulch

can reduce the amount of water needs. The plastic mulches can help

controlling the amount of rainfall absorbing and sunshine received by

the plants. Hence, the soil compaction could be reduced efficaciously.

On the other side, costs of plastic mulch both on the process of

establishment and removing is quiet expensive. Figure 10 below

shows a plastic mulch example for tomato planting.

http://ae-i.com/black-mulch-2324x1556-rubber-mulch-for-home-amp-play-grounds-crying-earth/images/high-resolution-33450/

http://ae-i.com/black-mulch-2324x1556-rubber-mulch-for-home-amp-play-grounds-crying-earth/images/high-resolution-33450/


18

Figure 10 Tomato planting with plastic mulch (source: yourhomegardenblog.com)

Rock and gravel

Different from rubber mulch and plastic mulch, rock and gravel mulch

are usually used for driveway and walkway landscaping or flower

beds. Because gravels won’t decay over time, rock and gravel mulch

can help prevent soil erosion and provide a stable foundation to walk

or drive. Figure 11 below shows gravel mulching.

Figure 11 Gravel mulching (source: edenmakersblog.com)

3 MATERIALS

A landscaping project should be done with many materials supporting

each other. According to the statement in the last chapter, most commonly

used materials in landscaping are soil, plant seed, fertilizers and water.

Based on the different requirements, there should be some chemical and

physical modifying material which are required in the landscaping

establishment. As the main idea for this thesis is sustainable landscaping,


19

in order to reach the goal of building eco-landscaping, the materials should

be firstly chosen from recycling materials.

3.1 List of recycled wastes

Material recycling is one of the main elements of waste management, and

the two main categories of recycling waste source are industry waste and

consumer waste.

Paper and books, cardboard, metal, glass and plastics are the most

common branches of recycling materials from consumer waste. Below in

Table 1 we have a recycle list published by the government of Scottsdale:

Table 1 Printable Recycling List from Scottsdaleaz.gov

Recyclable Non-recyclable

Aluminium Beverage Cans and

Clean Aluminium Foil

No Food Trays, Pie

Plants, Folding Chair

Frames

Aseptic Boxes Milk, Juice and Ice

Cream Containers

No Foil Juice Bags

Cardboard

Chipboard

Corrugated Cardboard

Boxes, Dry Food

Boxes such as cereal,

cake mix and cracker

containers (please

remove liner) shoe

boxes, pizza boxes,

empty paper towel and

toilet tissue tubes

No packing Material,

Bar Soap or Detergent

Boxed, Wax/Plastic

Liners

Glass Glass Food and

Beverage Containers

(dear, green or amber)

No Light Bulbs,

Window Glass, Mirror

Glass, Ceramic or

Pottery

Magazines All Magazines and

Telephone Books

No paperback or

Hardbound Books

Metal Cans Food Cans made of

Steel or Tin, Aerosol

Cans (empty only

please)

No other metals, paint

cans or toxic materials

Newspaper Newspaper and all

Inserts

No Bags or Rubber

Bands

Paper Computer and Writing

Paper, Paper Beverage

Cups, Junk Mail,

Brown Paper Grocery

Bages, File Folders

No Facial or Toilet

Tissue, Paper Towels,

Paper Plates, Napkins,

Gift Wrap, Diapers,

Pet Food Bags, FedEx

or Self-sealing

Envelopes

Plastics All plastic cups and No plastic bags, Motor


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containers #1-7, plastic

bottles, jugs, jars,

yogurt containers,

cottage cheese

containers, margarine

and whipped topping

tubs, plastic

“Clamshell” food

containers and

disposable plastic cups

Oil or Pool Chemical

Containers or

Syrofoam

Note: clear plastic bags

can be used to contain

shredded paper.

Electronic wastes such as computer or other electronic equipments are also

recycled, but they are not used in landscaping. Therefore, they are not in

the list above.

On the other side of consumer recycling, there are also many recycling

programs dealing with the waste generated from industry promoted by the

government. There are even taxes for other waste management systems for

industrial factories or companies to promote the implementation of

recycling systems. As for the common recycling waste such as glass or

plastic, the recycling process would be the same as in consumer recycling:

directly recycling with the common materials. However, for some special

material, for example rubber tyres, there’s an independent tyre dealer

required. In some industries the recyclabilitiy depends on the waste

generated and the utility of recycling material.

In Table 2 there is a list of recycling materials in the construction industry

as an example.

Table 2 Recycled Materials for Construction Industry (source: epd.gov.hk)

Recycled Materials Uses

Aggregate Sub-base material for road

construction, hardcore for

foundation works, base/fill for

drainage, aggregate for concrete

manufacture and general bulk fill

Asphalt Aggregate fill and sub-base fill

Excavated materials Filling materials

Public fill Land reclamation

Pulverized fuel ash Manufacture of Concrete products,

uses in fill and reclamation, highway

construction and reinforced soil

structures

Metals Manufacture of new metals

Glass Manufacture of eco-pavers, eco-

partition blocks and glassphalt,

substitute for sand and aggregates as

mortar, backfilling and reclamation

materials

Plastic Synthetic materials in form of

plastic lumber for landscaping,


21

horticulture and hydraulic

engineering

Rubber Manufacture of rubber slate tile use

in roofing and sport/playground

surface mat

Expanded polystyrene Manufacture of lightweight concrete

for non-structural works

As shown in Table 2 above, in every industry, there is a main recycling

materials.

3.2 Recycled materials already used in landscaping

As the sustainable landscaping starts to be popular, the use of recycled

materials got attention from society. In order to get a positive impact on

the environment, and also considering the costs, Table 3 contains a list of

commonly available recycled materials used in landscaping.

Table 3 Commonly Available Recycled Materials (Sources: Sustainable landscaping

for dummies by Owen E. Dell, page 27,table 2-1)

Item Use Source

Fly ash Added to concrete for

paving, footings, and

so on

Residue from coal-

fired power plants

Landscape ties Walls, steps, and

planters

Plastic reclaimed from

old cars

Plastic lumber Decks, planters,

railings, fencing, and

furniture

Grocery bags, milk and

soda containers, and

wood shavings and

scraps

Recycled plastic Composter, pots, other

materials, and gadgets

Waste plastic of

various kinds

Road base Sub-base under paving Ground asphalt and

concrete

Wood chips Mulching around

plants

Tree trimming

operations and

municipal green waste

Except for the most commonly used materials listed in Table 3, there are

also some other materials used in landscaping these days.

Recycled tyres

As mentioned in the part introducing mulching, rubber mulch is a very

good at retaining moisture and providing tractions for the plants’ root.

Recycled tyres can be used as whole or shredded into small pieces.

Because the rubber have a superiority of being a softly buffer, it can be

primarily used for paving or surfacing. It's also possible to use it in

building athletic fields and golf courses. (Loehrlein 2013)


22

Crushed concrete and asphalt

It is common to use crushed concrete to fill and provide drainage in a

swale, or to protect banksides. It can also be recycled into concrete

aggregates after removing embedded reinforcing rods and some other

items. Asphalt can be used in locations or constructing driveways.

(Loehrlein 2013)

Recycled glass

In landscaping, recycled glasses are often used as a visual decoration,

or it’s possible to use them in making stepping stones, pavers, tiles, and

planter boxes, too. (Loehrlein 2013)

3.3 Other reusable materials

Sludge from waste water treatment

In the wastewater treatment, there are two unit processes: primary

sedimentation and secondary treatment. Because the purpose of the

primary treatment is to remove settleable solids by using gravity

setting, the sludge consists of organic solids, grit and inorganic fines.

The organic solid can be used for further anaerobic digestion and

maximize the utilization of the sludge.

After the secondary treatment process including activated sludge,

percolating filters, RBCs and variations of these unit processes, the

sludge is essentially biological.

For the lawn maintenance period, recycled fertilizer materials are

playing an important role. Although sewer sludge contains a big

amount of phosphorus, those phosphorus cannot be used in lawn

establishment. Therefore, most of the recycled fertilizers used in

landscaping are from composted biowaste.

In sludge, there are several chemical properties existing, such as

metals, polymers, pH, Alkalinity, Nutrients and PCBs. we have some

data from the US and EU standards about the existing limits of

chemical In Tables 4,5,6 and 7.

Table 4 Typical values for metals in biosolids and limit values in the United States (Sources: Environmental Engineering, Gerard Kiely, McGraw-Hill, 1997,

580)

Paramete

r

US

Domestic Wastewater Sludge (mg/kg)

US

Domestic +industrial Sludge (mg/kg)

USEPA

Cumulative Ceiling Concentration (mg/kg)

USEPA

Cumulative Loading Rate (kg/ha)

USEPA

Annual Concentration (mg/kg)

USEP

A Annual Loading Rate (kg/ha)

As 10-50 75 41 41 2

Cd 10-400 90-240- 85 39 39 1.9

Cr 50-200 260-2650 3000 30000 1200 150


23

Cu 95-700 962-2300 4300 1500 1500 75

Pb 200-500 760-2790 840 300 300 15

Hg 1-11.2 2.6-5 57 17 17 0.85

Mo 75 18 18 0.9

Ni 110-400 200-900 420 420 420 21

Se 10-180 100 100 36 5

Zn 1000-1800 800-460 7500 2800 2800 140

Adapted from Jones. 1981 and Part 503 WEF, 1993

Table 5 Limits for metals in biosolids (EC) (Sources: Environmental Engineering,

Gerard Kiely, McGraw-Hill, 1997, 581)

Parameter Limit value in soil (mg/kg)

Limit values in sludge (mg/kg)

Annual limit values in sludge for application(kg/ha)

Based on a 10 yr average

Netherland post-1995 in sludge (mg/kg)

Cd 1-3 20-40 0.15 1.25

Cu 50-140 1000-1750 12 75

Ni 30-75 300-400 3 30

Pb 50-300 750-1200 15 100

Zn 150-300 2500-4000 30 300

Hg 1-1.5 16-25 0.1 0.75

Cr - - - 75

As - - - 15

EU Directive ‘On the protection of the environment and in particular of

the soil, when sewage sludge is used in agriculture’, 86/278/EEC

Table 6 Range of typical chemical composition of sludge (Sources: Environmental

Engineering, Gerard Kiely, McGraw-Hill, 1997, 581)

Parameter Primary sludge Anaerobically digested

sludge

Aerobically digested

sludge

pH 5-8 6.5-7.5 -

Alkalinity (mg/Las CaCO2)

500-1500 2500-3500 -

Nitrogen (N% of TS) 1.5-4 1.6-6 0.5-7.6

Phosphorus (P2O5% of

TS)

0.8-2.8 1.5-4 1.1-5.5

Fats , grease (% of TS)

6-30 5-20 -

Protein (% of TS) 20-30 15-20 -

Organic acids (mg/L as HAc)

6800-10000 2700-6800 -

Adapted from USEPA, 1977, 1983

Table 7 Concentrations of K, Na, Ca, Mg, Ba, Fe, and Al in sewage sludge (Sources:

Environmental Engineering, Gerard Kiely, McGraw-Hill, 1997, 581)

Parameter Anaerobic Aerobic All

K 0.52 0.46 0.4

Na 0.7 1.1 0.57

Ca 5.8 3.3 4.9

Mg 0.58 0.52 0.54

Ba 0.08 0.02 0.06

Fe 1.6 1.1 1.3

Al 1.7 0.7 1.2

Adapted from USEPA, 1983

As mentioned above, the organic solid contains nutrients and organic

elements. However, the organic solids from sewer sludge are produced

after the primary treatment, which means that there should be some


24

treatment before using it in landscaping. Table 8 shows some sludge

quality requirements for land application.

Table 8 Sludge quality requirements for land application (Sources: Environmental

Engineering, Gerard Kiely, McGraw-Hill, 1997, 583)

Alternative Method Description

1 Anaerobic/aerobic

digestion

38% VS reduction

2 Anaerobic digestion If 1 not satisfied + 40

days at 30-37 ℃ to

achieve VS reduction of

17%

3 Aerobic digestion If 1 not satisfied +30

days at 20℃to achieve

VS reduction of 15%

4 Aerobic digestion SOUR < 1.5 mg O2/h gr

5 Aerobic (composting 14 days > 40℃

Average

temperature>45℃

6 Alkaline stabilization pH>12 for >2h or pH >

11.5 for 22h

7 Drying 75% DS

8 Drying 90% DS

9 Soil injection No surface residue after

1 h injected within 8

hours

10 Incorporation Land applied and

incorporated into the

soil within 6 h

Adapted from WEF 1993b

Recycled surface soil from construction

Soil recycling is a big market in the construction industry and has been

treated seriously nowadays. Many of the construction sites would take a

survey before they start the project, and make sure that the quality of

the site soil is recyclable or not. If the soil fulfills the soil acceptance

criteria based on the local legislation code, it could be reused.

4 MTT PROJECT

4.1 Company introduction

MTT Agrifood Research Finland is a leading research institute in Finland,

focusing on the research and development in food systems. The first agro-

economic test facility of MTT was established in 1898 at Tikkurila in


25

Vantaa. In 2001 the Agro-economic Research Centre and the Finnish

Agricultural Economics Research Institute merged to form MTT Agrifood

Research Finland. In 2006, the researching field was divided into six fields:

Biotechnology and Food Research, Animal Production, Plants, Economics,

Environment, and Technology. There are now five research areas in MTT:

sustainable and competitive food production, Responsible food chain-

better consumer well-being, Environmentally friendly agriculture, Green

economy opportunities and smartly from renewable resources. (Agrifood

Research Finland MTT, 2013)

4.2 Project introduction

The project ‘Application of LCA for sustainable green cover management

using waste derived materials’ is part of the EU LIFE09 ENV program; it

is supported by many companie and municipalities in Finland. The

demonstration plots locate on the following municipal cities: Forssa,

Jokioinen, Hattala, Hämeenlinna, Espoo, Pori, Jyväskylä and Ylistaro. The

following companies collaborate with the project: EnvorBiotech

Oy( Biogas production, growing media production of organic municipal

biowaste), Hämeenlinnan Seudun Vesi Oy( growing media production of

sewage sludge after composting process), Kekkilä Oy( growing media

production). MTT is in charge of demonstrations and life cycle assessment

part. The Project manager of this project is Oiva Niemeläinen in MTT.

The use of waste derived from landscaping materials is demonstrated in 20

amenity areas in communities in different areas in Finland. The main

purpose of the MTT project is: 1) to demonstrate the many possibilities to

utilize waste materials in landscaping, especially in lawn construction and

management. 2) To develop a lifecycle assessment in amenity grass area

to prove that the inference of using recycled materials in landscaping can

reduce negative environmental impacts. 3) To provide a cost-benefit

analysis comparing waste derived lawn and conventional processes. 4)

Demonstration of the materials could be used for urban landscaping.

(MTT project description, 2013) The project is still under process. The

main idea of this project is to demonstrate the many possibilities to utilize

waste derived materials in green cover construction and management. The

LCA results are expected to make sure that negative environmental

impacts will be reduced by the tentative idea of increasing the use of

recycled materials in landscaping. (Agrifood Research Finland MTT, 2013)

4.3 Materials and methods

The substrates used in the demonstration including composted biogas

rejects, composted waste-water sludge, and sand and peat, some

conventional substrates like peat and top soil are also used (Niemeläinen

2012). Detailed information about the substrates used in the project is in

Appendix 1. Composted soil and community biowaste are the most

commonly used substrate material in this project, with different raw

material of the substrates and limits of harmful metals concentration, the

demonstration could come out with different results. Coarse and fine sand,


26

clay and silt, peat soil, sand and composted sewage sludge are the most

commonly used raw materials in amenity demonstrated with compost soil.

The lifecycle assessment includes: a) goal and scope definition, b)

inventory analysis, c) impact assessment and d) interpretation (Oiva

Niemeläinen, 2012). The data of energy use and material flows as inputs

or outputs will be collected in the step of inventory analysis, and then in

the impact assessment the emissions will be classified. Figure 12 shows

the system boundaries used in the project.

The use of primary energy, impact on green house gases, nutrient leaching,

acidification and some other characteristics will all be assessed in the

project in the lifecycle assessment. The environmental impacts of the

whole life cycle starting from inputs to outputs will be investigated and

recycled based substrate materials such as common biowaste and sewer

sludge composted after biogas production will be paid more attention to

(Niemeläinen 2012).

The project studies also the effect of lawn maintenance such as mowing,

fertilizer application and the Green House Gas effect impact.

Figure 12 System boundaries used in the Life-Cycle Assessment in the LCA in

Landscaping Project. (Sources: Application of Life-cycled Assessment on

Establishment and Maintenance of Amenity Lawns, Oiva Niemeläinen, 2012,

figure 3)

5 LEGISLATION ON THE USE OF MATERIALS


27

Legislation should be considered with the project sections when it

concerns the project using waste or recycled materials. Using a waste to

the project as an input material, the environmental permit is needed, and

starting a construction project also needs a permit according to legislation.

However, for using the waste which has already been produced, such as a

fertilizer the legislation is in a different department. In 2010 the European

Commission had made the decision that the waste will no longer be

controlled under waste legislation if it has reached end-of-waste status and

becomes a product (Han Van De Wiel, 2009). Therefore, there are also

acts on fertilizer products.

As it is known, in the European Countries, every project of construction,

no matter building a construction or land construction, an environmental

permit is needed. For applying for the permit, project identification and

hazard identification are significant.

Take a mulching project as an example. There are 16 sections that should

be mentioned in the application document: Product and Company

Identification, Hazard Identification, Composition/Information on

Ingredients, First Aid Measures, Fire Fighting Measures, Accidental

Release Measures, Handling and Storage, Exposure Control/Personal

Protection, Physical and Chemical Properties, Stability and Reactivity,

Toxicological Information, Ecological Information, Disposal

Consideration, Transport Information, Regulatory Information and Other

Information. (Colorbiotics, 2010)

Except for the permit for the project before starting there is also certain

legislation that should be considered for the typical situation in the country.

Here we only consider the situation of using waste directly in the

landscaping or using the ‘waste product’ as a fertilizer or mulching in the

landscaping.

5.1 Finland

As a European country, Finland has always put environmental protection

and waste management in a very serious place. Therefore, there are

Environmental Conservation Act, Waste Act and other legislation

regarding the environment. Recently, the municipal waste management in

Finland has turned into a very stable level, and in order to reach the level

of Austria, Finland has focused on recycling more than ever.

In Waste Act, Section 52, there is a list of the measures for promoting re-

use. This strongly shows the attention from the Finnish government.

(Waste Act, Section 52)

Besides the legislation regulating the use of waste in the input process,

there is also an act on fertiliser products. In Finland, The Act on

Fertiliser Products 539/2006 is the legislation controlling the production,

marketing, import and export of fertiliser products. (National legislation,

The Act on Fertiliser Products 539/2006)


28

5.2 China

Unfortunately, the legislation of recycling and reusing control in China

has no accurate rules about the materials delivery and reusing guidelines.

There is some legislation related to waste recycling and reuse in other Acts

as well, but it is not comprehensive and has many flaw. That is also the

reason why in China the consumer recycling is not promoted very well.

Nowadays, the Chinese government and professors of law have the target

to complete the legislation in Environmental protection and Waste

management.

According to the Chinese Environment Conservation Law, Chapter 4,

Section 25, any construction industry or other manufacturing industry

should use the resources which have a high utilization and low hazard

output technology, manage the waste in an economic way. (Chinese

Environmental Conservation , Chapter 4, Section 25)

Therefore, in the field of landscaping, according to the environmental

conservation law and other legislation, the first consideration is reducing

pollution in the producing stage, and reusing the resources if the situation

allows doing that.

Also, because of the big population and developing situation, legislation

considering the use of ‘waste product’ is only avoiding producing serious

environmental problems. Currently, promotion of recycling waste is still

the biggest target in China.

5.3 ABT technologies in England

Advanced biological treatment can produce very useful products for

further use. In this case, composting can be used when it meets the

necessary standards and end-use requirements in land restoration and soft

landscaping operations; horticulture; or agriculture and soil-grown

horticulture sectors. (Advanced Biological Treatment of Municipal Solid

Waste, February 2013, 15)

In England, there is a specification, BSi PAS 100, to increase consumer

confidence in buying compost. The compost producers should segregate

the biodegradable waste which does not exceed the limits illustrated in

BSi PAS 100 to produce ‘quality compost’. (Advanced Biological

Treatment of Municipal Solid Waste, February 2013, 16) Table 9 shows a

Criteria of BSi PAS 100 in 2011.

Table 9 BSi PAS 100: 2011 Criteria (Sources: Advanced Biological Treatment of

Municipal Solid Waste, February 2013, 16)

Parameter BSI PAS 100 limit

Cadmium (Cd) 1.5 ppm (of dry matter)

Chromium (Cr) 100 ppm (of dry matter)

Copper (Cu) 200 ppm (of dry matter)

Mercury (Hg) 1 ppm (of dry matter)


29

Nickel (Ni) 50 ppm (of dry matter)

Lead (Pb) 200 ppm (of dry matter)

Zinc (Zn) 400 ppm (of dry matter)

Non-stone contaminants>2mm 0.25%; of which 0.12% maximum

can be plastic

Gravel & stones >4mm (‘other than’ mulch grade):

<8% mass (of dry-air sample)

>4mm (mulch grade): <10% (of

dry-air sample)

Pathogens E.coli: 1000 CFU/g (of fresh mass)

Salmonella: absent in test of 25g

fresh mass

Microbial respiration rate 16 mg CO2/g organic matter/day

*BSi PAS 100 is only valid for composts derived from source-segregated

waste, by definition.

The Environmental Agency and WRAP have produced a Quality Protocol

alongside key industry bodies which only allows source segregated wastes,

such as garden and food waste, to be utilized.(Advanced Biological

Treatment of Municipal Solid Waste, February 2013, 3) After the waste

has been composted and produced according to the criteria, it won’t be

regarded as waste anymore. (Advanced Biological Treatment of Municipal

Solid Waste, February 2013, 17)

The latest version of the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2012

requires that, unless a quality protocol applies, an environmental

permitting exemption is obtained by land owners/managers before any

compost, digestate or liquor derived from source-segregated waste

materials can be applied to agricultural land (Advanced Biological

Treatment of Municipal Solid Waste, February 2013, 18).

6 PERSONAL COMPREHENSION

6.1 Criteria of reusing material

As mentioned in the chapters above, there are many different waste

materials that could be reused. Based on the experiments taken by MTT

and the existing cases, also taking legislation into consideration, a basic

criteria list of recycled materials use in landscaping has been concluded as

follows:

Providing growing needs for landscaping

As mentioned in Chapter 2.2.2, there is soil, nutrient and water

requirement in lawn establishment and it’s also the same as in

landscaping with plants. Therefore, the materials use in landscaping

should provide a growing environment for the plants. Using sand for

creating a more restricted water movement is reasonable for an artificial

lawn establishment. Mulch could help with controlling the temperature


30

and water absorption and some chemical could neutralize the pH value

into the perfect range for plants growing.

No disturbing of landscape forming

In every landscape, no matter with plants or not, there are certain

requirements for maintaining and protecting it. If there is plastic mulch

in a lawn where there is little precipitation and extreme high

temperature, the mulch does not help but kills the target area. Therefore,

the materials should not disturb the landscape forming.

No hazard material

The output of the landscape is a very important part to evaluate whether

the work is successful or not. Even though the target landscape is not

certainly called a sustainable project; the environmental effect output is

unacceptable. Therefore, materials causing polluted runoff, air pollution

and any other environmental pollution should not be used.

Table 10 contains a list of toxic materials and their alternatives for

landscaping:

Table 10 Toxic materials and alternatives (sources: Sustainable landscaping for

dummies by Owen E. Dell, page 36,table 2-2)

Toxic( or suspected Toxic)

Material

Safer Alternative

Arsenic-treated wood ACQ-treated wood, black locust,

white oak, cedar, redwood, steel

Glues Alternative glues, mechanical

fasteners like nails, screws and

bolts

Paints, finishes, and solvents Low VOC finishes, or best of all,

materials that don’t need finishing

PVC High-density polyethylene or

other plastics, non-plastic

alternatives

Railroad ties Recycled plastic landscape ties,

salvaged timbers

6.2 Application prospects

Since the lawn establishment is a very important part of landscaping and

also a big part of research MTT is now working on, improving the soil

condition and the truf grass growing environment should be the first

consideration in choosing the material.

As can be seen in the Appendix, the substrates used in demonstration

come mostly from composting waste or biowaste. The focus on the current

project researching is more about chemical construction of the lawn.


31

Mulching is also a way to improve the growing condition for the lawn.

Since the target group in the project includes private landscaping and

public landscaping, mulching could also be a possibility.

Most of the mulching produced by recycled material are for physical

features control, and the materials are mostly persistent materials.

Considering that “some waste materials should be getting rid of”, the

mulching such as rubber mulching, plastic mulching or even paper

mulching should be more promoted.

7 SPECIAL CASES AND RESEARCHES OUTSIDE FINLAND

7.1 Research on application of daily waste used in lawn establishment in China

During the years 2005-2006, there was a research regarding the use of

domestic waste into artificial lawn establishment. The research took

placed in He Xi University, and the raw material in this research was

domestic waste , sand, fly ash, sawdust, rice husk, chicken stool, fertilizer

(N 5.5%, P2O5 2%, K2O 1%) and soil. The experiment had four sets of

different scale mixed substrates, as Table 11 shows.

Table 11 Different substrate mixture % (Source: Study on Application of Daily

Rubbish Mixed based to lawn establishment, China, 2007)

Domesti

c waste

Fly

ash

Sawdust Rice

husk

Slug Sand Fertile

soil

1 0.30 0.15 0.20 0.35

2 0.15 0.20 0.35 0.30

3 0.15 0.20 0.35 0.30

4 1.0

As the experiment results show, mix daily garbage, fly ash, sawdust and

rice husk as the scale of 0.30:0.15:0.20:0.35 is the most efficient

arrangement. Comparing to the normal soil, the substrate has more

outstanding features such as a lower pH value, and a lager cation exchange

which can give a positive lawn growing environment.

7.2 Reuse of construction waste in landscaping in China

In China, there are about 40 million tons if construction waste generated

every year, which accounts for about 30% - 40% of the municipal waste.

In this situation, reusing of construction waste is necessary. Therefore,

recycling of waste from construction is always one of the biggest targets

of research and development. Li Guangqing from Shenzhen Beilin

Landscape Architecture Construction Co, Ltd has published an article

about recycling of construction waste into landscaping material. Here is

the list of reusing method in China which were mentioned in his article.

In-situ use


32

In some cases, if the old building is remained on the site, the architects

could use a good design idea to build up the new landscape with the

history remained. There are two options: conserve totally or only

partially. The total conservation means making renovation to the old

building and it will meet new needs. The Beijing No. 798 Art District is

a successful example of total conservation by renovation. Partial

conservation refers to removing only part of the building and making it

into an outdoor landscape. For example conserving a beam, column and

its structure and turning it into a pergola, conserving the concrete wall

into a climbing wall or some other possibilities. (Li Guangqing, 2010)

In 2002, Tianjin Nancuiping Park built a 400,000 m2 artificial mountain.

This project used 5 million m3 construction wastes. During the building

process, waste stones, concrete blocks and sand were used for

constructing the frame of the artificial mountain after a simple

treatment. After setting seepage, prevention system of leachate

collection and methane discharge, on the outer layer there is a drainage

network, non-woven geotextile and cultivated soil layer. After this

landscaping project was done, this project did not have the outlook as a

waste hill at all, and got the acceptance from Environmental Protection

Department in China. Now this landscape transformation has become a

“green lung” in Tianjin southwest region, and playing an important role

in improving the microclimate for the surrounding areas. (Yang

Huizhong, 2010) Figure 13 is the artificial mountain in Tianjin

Nancuiping Park.

Figure 13 Artificial Mountain in Tianjin Nancuiping Park (Source: Study on the

application of Waste Materials in Landscape Architecture, Fujian Agriculture

and Forestry University, Yang Huizhong, 2010)

Sorting

After dismantling the building, the construction waste which is

hazardous should be sorted out and managed according to the

legislation in order to cause the second pollution. The wastes left after


33

the sorting could be reused directly or reused after more processes. (Li

Guangqing, 2010)

Direct Reuse

There are also many different ways to reuse the construction waste

directly. The Mound design is a way which not only can deal with the

big amount of construction waste, but also rebuild the environment as a

more even landscape. In Shanghai Expo Park, there is a big amount of

construction waste from removing the steel factory under 2 meters deep

underground. An Ecological wall is a good way to reuse the waste

materials such as concrete or bricks. By shredding the concrete or brick

into 10-30 cm cubes and filled into a wire cage or directly used to build

a wall, the ecological wall could be funded along with the soil sticking

and plants growing . (Li Guangqing, 2010) Figure 14 shows an

ecological wall.

Figure 14 Ecological wall (Source: Study on Recycling of Construction Waste in

Landscaping Construction, Li Guangqing, 2010)

Soil substrate is also a very good way to reuse the construction waste

directly. This method can be used for raw materials including broken

bricks, muck, slag or woods. Broken bricks, muck and slag can be

partially joined in planting soil and it will become the growth medium

for the plants as shown in Figure 15. Bracing humus and other organic

matter in the soil, in this way the plants could be trained to purify the

soil and increase fertility. Wood chips and sawdust can be used as

compost materials and erosion protection coverings. There are

especially used in landscaping for lake, stream side. Certainly the

waste from construction site could be used as decoration materials as

in Figure 16. (Li Guangqing, 2010)


34

Figure 15 Soil substrates (Source: Study on Recycling of Construction Waste in

Landscaping Construction, Li Guangqing, 2010)

Figure 16 Wall decoration made by waste bricks. (Source: Study on Recycling of

Construction Waste in Landscaping Construction, Li Guangqing, 2010)

7.3 Green roof research in Spain

The green roof is a very good production for reducing the surface runoff in

the cities and improving the urban climate and biodiversity support. In

Spain, there is a report about the use of rubber crumbs as a drainage layer

in green roofs as a potential energy improvement material in 2011.

(Gabriel Pérez, Anna Vila, Lídia Rincón, Cristian Solé, Luisa F. Cabeza,

2011)

In the research, the difference of drainage ability of recycled rubber and

the natural puzolana were compared by studying the hydraulic

conductivity of these materials in a lab. After the first step, the experiment


35

to study the insulation effect of extensive green roofs in Continental

Mediterranean climate was set up. In this step of experiment, the green

roof was installed in cubicles. (Gabriel Pérez, Anna Vila, Lídia Rincón,

Cristian Solé, Luisa F. Cabeza, 2011)

The results of the research concluded:

Through the lab tests, there are not significant differences in the

hydraulic conductivity when using the rubber crumbs instead of

puzolana. (Gabriel Pérez, Anna Vila, Lídia Rincón, Cristian Solé,

Luisa F. Cabeza, 2011)

An extensive green roof in an experimental cubicle can bring a

reduction of indoor temperatures between 2 and 5 ℃ during the

summer and early autumn. (Gabriel Pérez, Anna Vila, Lídia Rincón,


An extensive green roof can have some contribution to saving energy

during summer in the Spanish climate, and replacing puzolana by

rubber crumbs is possible. (Gabriel Pérez, Anna Vila, Lídia Rincón,


8 CONCLUSION

Along with the technology developing, the number of new materials in our

life should be growing, and this will lead the way to using non-renewable

materials on the earth. Therefore, the awareness of sustainable

development is significant.

1) What is Landscaping, and why sustainable landscaping is being

promoted?

Landscaping is a significant activity for the municipal development. It

can give contribution to both land structure and exterior visual outlook

by softscaping and hardscaping. However, for the current situation on the

earth, because of the over using of energy and in most of the developing

countries, the economic activities to maintain the rich life and large

amount of energy consumption is a root cause for developing. Certainly

landscaping needs materials to complete the design. Therefore, after

reminders of the advantages of learning the natural and traditional

technology from the natural eco-system, promoting sustainable

landscaping is necessary.

2) How is lawn establishment implemented.

Lawn establishment includes the steps of soil test, preparing the soil,

rough grading the site, amending the soil, final grading the soil, applying

starter fertilizer, spreading seed, spreading mulch and post-seeding care


36

such as irrigation. For the lawn construction status, there are four main

options: Seeding, Sodding, Plugging, Sprigging and Stolonizing.

There are also many factors which have an effect on the lawn

establishment, besides of the natural factors, soil condition, nutritional

requirements and fertilization, and water requirement and irrigation are

the factors that could be modified.

Lawn is an important part of landscaping. After the thesis study about the

lawn establishment, a sustainable lawn could be established by using

materials in soil construction. Because of the soil structure and

requirement, recycled waste could be applied in topsoil part as mulching

to meet different purposes, for instance moisture requirement,

temperature requirement and pH value or used as a fertilizer in soil

management. According to the demonstration from MTT project, and the

substrates use, composting sludge and biowaste is most commonly used

in the lawn establishment not only in practice but also a main thought for

starting the researching.

3) What are the potential recycled materials that could be used in

landscaping, what are the criteria?

Fly ash, landscape ties, plastic lumber, recycled plastic, road base and

wood chips are the most commonly recycled materials used in

landscaping starting from 2009. Apart from those, recycled tyres,

crushed concrete and asphalt, and recycled glass have also been used in

2013. Based on the theory study in Chapter 3.3 and the demonstration in

MTT project, sludge from waste water treatment and biowaste is one of

the potential recycled materials.

However, landscaping is not only about lawn establishment. There are

also many different materials that could be recycled for landscaping.

Even for glasses, it could provide a great visual outlook for the landscape.

Therefore, for no matter decoration, landscape construction or even

landscape maintaining, the choice of recycled material could be flexible.

Providing growing needs for landscaping, no disturbing of landscape

forming and no hazard materials are the criteria based on the writer’s

conclusion. Certainly, the main aim for building a sustainable landscape

is protecting the environment. Hence, the material should be possible to

obtain a permit from the environmental authorities and it should be

allowed by legislation.

4) How is the “recycled materials using in landscaping” promoting status

in other countries outside Finland.

Through the cases and researches mentioned in chapters 7.1-7.3, in some

countries like Spain and China, the amount of waste generation is huge,

and there are researches about reusing waste materials shows a good

trend. However, take China as an example, the lack of legislation about

the certain field shows the lack of awareness of recycling and reusing.

Nowadays, the waste management system in some countries the

awareness of saving materials for landscaping is not enough. Therefore,


37

the promoting of reusing waste materials in landscaping not only needs

the research and technology, but also the awareness of the positive

environmental waste management system.

In conclusion, green cover construction and landscaping could be

combined with waste management well to built up a sustainable cycle.

There are still potential materials that could be found out during the

researches in the future, and it is not only researching in Europe but in

the whole world.


38

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Appendix 1

SUBSTRATE USED IN PROJECT LCA IN LANDSCAPING

use of recycled (waste) materials in landscaping...subject of bachelor’s thesis use of recycled...

Documents