Construction waste, Italy recovers 80%

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47.7% of the total special waste produced in Italy derives from the construction sector. 80.1% of these are recovered, a percentage that has been steadily growing since 2017, which places Italy among the best countries in Europe, well above the 70% target set by Directive 2008/98/EC for 2020. The data comes from the Ispra 2023 Special Waste Report – which Il Sole 24 Ore on Monday is able to anticipate, and which will be published on 18 July. They demonstrate that construction waste is among those that present the most critical issues and, at the same time, opportunities, with a view to an increasingly circular economy.

The Ispra analysis shows the recovery of the construction sector after the significant drop recorded due to the pandemic: the production of waste from construction and demolition operations stands at almost 59.4 million tonnes (+18.4% compared to 2020 ). At the same rate, the recovery of materials increases, in 2021 equal to almost 47.6 million tonnes, or 80.1% of the total (+21.7% on 2020).

Yet, reading through the data, the knot to untie emerges. “Recovered materials are mostly used for low-quality uses, such as filling or construction of road foundations,” explains Lucia Rigamonti, professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department of the Milan Polytechnic. «The aggregate that is produced in Italy – he continues – does not have the necessary quality for more noble uses, such as the construction of foundations. According to one of our studies, on the environmental assessment of the construction and demolition waste management system in Lombardy, selective demolition with the separation of the various materials, more expensive than the traditional one, does not bring the benefits it should because it has not yet developed a supply chain. Even if the materials are separated, it is often not clear where to send them, or the recycling center in charge is so far away that the transport costs are not justified. Thus the recycling plant does not have good waste input, and the result is mixed, not high quality, recycled aggregate that is mistrusted by buyers. Also because – concludes Rigamonti – the price is almost equivalent to that of the aggregate made with virgin raw materials, taken from a quarry». The real leap in quality would therefore be having a high percentage of waste recovery linked to the most noble uses, which the new version of the End of Waste decree should help to encourage (see the article below).

The use of recycled material

Not only is this possible, it’s already happening. Just outside Paris, in fact, a real estate complex of 220 apartments is taking shape which is a world first. Made with 100% recycled concrete, Recygénie should be completed by 2024 and is the result of the partnership between Holcim, a multinational company operating in the building materials sector, and the French company Seqens, one of the major players in the French social housing sector. The compound, which has made it possible to save over 6 thousand tons of natural resources, was produced using EcoCycle®, the Holcim platform launched in early 2023, which transforms construction and demolition waste into new building solutions.

The point is therefore to extract less and recover more, also because, globally, the construction sector is responsible for around 50% of material extraction, with greenhouse gas emissions between 5 and 12%, which can be reduced by 80%. % making the system efficient (Eurostat data).