FROM A WASTE TO A SECONDARY MATERIAL: GOING TOWARDS A MORE SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE

Environmental sustainability and energy efficiency in the construction industry
It is now widely accepted the need to follow new lifestyles and to study alternative uses of natural resources; moving away from the anthropocentric perspective of an environmental heritage management in favour of a more sustainable approach and a resilient transformation of the territory. The built environment, in this perspective, should be reconsidered as a systemic reality.
It’s out of doubt that the construction industry plays an important role in the European economy (accounting for over 10% of the employment in the European Union- EU data 2012) and how it is a big “consumer” of intermediate products (raw materials, chemical substances, electrical and electronic equipment, etc.) and related services. At the same time, however, the energy demand of buildings and the efficiency in the use of resources in production, transportation and use of materials intended for the construction of buildings and infrastructures, have a significant impact from the energy point of view, the climate change and the environment(1).
Based on these considerations, in 2013 the research called “Ethic Concrete ” was activated (financed with funds from the Tuscany Region through Bando unico R&D for the year 2012) which has involved three important Tuscan industries (Unibloc srl, leader of the project, SAM Engineering the spa and Revet Vetri srl) and two University research Institutions(2) and which has interested two fields closely related with the issues of environmental sustainability and energy efficiency; the construction industry and the waste treatment.
The aim of the research was to define the entire production process of a new lightweight aggregate for concrete using a “secondary raw material” coming from the waste glass produced by the urban recycling process, focusing on procedural, regulatory and financial instruments that can favour economies of scale, taking to its trial as an alternative material to the conventional quarry aggregates in products of widespread diffusion and industrial production. […]