title: Sustainable management and supply of natural and recycled aggregates in a medium-size integrated plant.
abstract: The consumption of natural aggregates in civil engineering applications can cause severe environmental impacts on a regional scale, depleting the stock of bulk resources within a territory. Several methods can improve the environmental sustainability of the whole aggregates' supply process, including natural and recycled aggregates' productive chains, for instance promoting the use of recycled aggregates (RA). However, when quarrying and recycling activities are considered as stand-alone processes, also the RA supply chain may not be as sustainable as expected, due to the high environmental loads associated to transportation, if high distances from the production to the use sites are involved. This work gives some insights on the environmental impact assessment of the aggregates' industry in the Italian context, through a comparative assessment of the environmental loads of natural and recycled aggregates' productive chains. An integrated plant for the extraction of virgin aggregates and recycling of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) was analyzed as significant case study, with the aim to identify the influence of sustainable solutions on the overall emissions of the facility. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach was used, using site-specific data and paying particular attention on transportation-related impacts, land use, avoided landfill and non-renewable resources preservation. From this work it was possible to evaluate the influence of transportation and PV energy use on the overall environmental emissions of natural and recycled aggregates' productive chains.
authors.affiliation: University of Padova, Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Via Marzolo 9, 35131 Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Flora
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Faleschini
authors.affiliation: University of Padova, Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Via Marzolo 9, 35131 Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Mariano Angelo
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Zanini
authors.affiliation: University of Padova, Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Via Marzolo 9, 35131 Padova, Italy. Electronic address: carlo.pellegrino@unipd.it.
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pellegrino
authors.affiliation: EGAP Srl, Via Roncalli 59, 36027 Rosà, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pasinato
mesh_terms: D060389:Construction Industry / Q000379:methods*; D003252:Construction Materials; D004777:Environment; D007558:Italy; D059027:Recycling; D014186:Transportation; D064091:Waste Disposal Facilities; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*
keywords: C&DW management; LCA; Natural aggregates; Recycled aggregates; Recycled concrete aggregates; Sustainability