Recovery and upgrading of stone processing waste for ecological sustainability
Stone extraction and cutting have various impacts on the environment with implications for the surrounding ecosystem. The objective of CLEANSTONE is to improve environmental protection and resource efficiency in the stone industry by developing an innovative technology that minimises and reutilises waste from stone processing and by promoting the adoption of optimised manufacturing practises. This will be done by acting on several levels (technological, behavioural, normative) to make the stone manufacturing sector more competitive and environmentally sustainable. The main project outputs will be :1) A set of guidelines defining criteria for assessing the environmental impact of stone processing and innovative protocols enabling optimized recovery of usable secondary raw materials from slurries and broken slabs of different stone types; 2) A white paper with proposals for amending the stone manufacturing waste legislation in Austria and Italy, which currently does not allow exploiting
the full potential of waste reuse. The project is original since it is the first attempt to integrate different recovery techniques in a single framework specifically designed for the companies in the stone sector (mostly SMEs). Local, regional and national authorities will also benefit from an increased awareness of the advantages produced, in terms of circular economy dynamics and environmental protection, by the implementation of the proposed practices.