COMPARATIVE LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF INNOVATIVE AND TRADITIONAL ADHESIVES FOR THE LAYING OF CERAMIC TILES

The mission of sustainable development exerted the pressure demanding for the adoption of proper methods to protect the environment across all industries, including construction. Waste management is considered an urgent problem that needs to be addressed by identifying favorable solutions to minimize its environmental burden. Recycling is one of the strategies inducing the minimization of waste directed to landfill sites, by promoting their reuse, along with reducing demand for new raw materials. In the construction field, the request of aggregates generates a strong impact on the territory because of a mining activity, which can be planned and regulated with great difficulty. It is more and more relevant to focus on the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of contribution that the secondary aggregates, obtained by valorization of waste, can lead to the fulfillment of the needs of the construction industry. For this reason it is necessary to assess, in terms of a technical and environmental point of view, the industrial processes to obtain the secondary raw materials available for use and to compare them with the production of natural aggregates by mining activity. This paper aims to compare the environmental impact due to the production of adhesive for the laying of baked clay, obtained by the manufacturing of baked waste and natural aggregates, by paying attention on the main environmental burdens which characterize the production of natural and recycled aggregates. As a result, the recycling process leads to an increase in environmental impact compared to the production of natural sand as the energy consumption in the recycling process reduces the benefits of saving raw materials. However, the ceramic waste recycling leads to a decrease of the overall potential damage of 44% compared to landfilling.