Recycling of rock materials as part of sustainable aggregate production in Norway and Italy

Resource preservation and increased waste recycling are important for sustainability in Europe. Thus, it is essential to achieve environmentally safe and sound management of quarry waste (QW) at European and national level. Rock materials recycling practice has therefore been studied in Norway and Italy. At present, recycling levels vary and systematic recovery is not common in European countries. Furthermore, QW is often landfilled owing to unclear legislation and a general lack of technical data. It was found that 80 – 90% and 30 – 80% of the quarrying volumes end up as QW in Norway and Italy, respectively. Furthermore, the fine fraction constitutes around 40% of the total production of dimension stone and natural aggregate in Norway. However, continuing project initiatives over the past 5 – 10 years have shown that QW can be used to produce aggregate. In addition, positive economic and environmental effects are likely to be achieved by systematic recycling of QWplanned by industries and public authorities. However, no significant incentives for recycling or systematic approaches for local aggregate exploitation exist in Italy and Norway. These need to be developed and implemented to change current practice in a major way.