La circolarità delle risorse come driver d’innovazione nel settore dei laterizi

Tackling the consumption of resources, the production of waste, and the emission of greenhouse gas are the main challenges that the construction sector will have to face in the immediate future to achieve the climate neu- trality foreseen by the European Union by 2050. Extracting, producing, using, and throwing away is, therefore, a sequence of operations unsuitable for pursuing sustainable development goals. How- ever, even though European policies foster the recovery and recycling of waste, activities related to the construction process are still mainly respon- sible for its production. Moreover, reusing recovered or recycled material still needs to be improved. Consequently, there is a growing demand to address research pathways that can trigger a change in how construction actors manufacture prod- ucts and buildings. These experiences encourage applying production and resource-use circular models. Within this perspective, the “Circularity of Material Resources” project – financed by European PON funds on a Green theme – intends to act operationally on a case study in the brick sector. It investigates strategies and actions to prevent the waste of resources and reduce environmental impacts. Currently engaged in the first phase of studying the critical issues and the opportunities affecting the brick sector, the project exploits a combination of traditional and innovative approaches to research new circular processes and product solutions. In this regard, the article illustrates the qualitative-quantitative analysis of the partner company’s product system, carried out by the Life Cycle As- sessment (LCA) methodology, and then reflects on the opportunities for innovation related to the use of waste and by-products in the brick sector.