RUB2RES - Rubble-to-Resource: Earth science knowledge for sorting and recycling Construction and Demolition Waste

The RUB2RES project aims to lay down comprehensive guidelines for improving the management and exploitation of Construction & Demolition Waste (C&DW), developing innovative and sustainable products and sorting processes, readily transferable to industry. The project deals with post-earthquake Construction & Demolition Waste (C&DW) collected from Marche, Abruzzo and Emilia-Romagna (Italy), as a challenging case study for the management and recovery of an extremely heterogeneous and potentially hazardous mineral composite. About 2.7 million tons rubbles have been estimated as generated by the 2016-2017 seismic events in Central Italy. The impact of this problem is exemplified in the Figure below.




This project combines the most advanced Earth Science analytical methods with engineering practices in order to: i) enable fast and reliable classification and sorting technologies; ii) calibrate the remote-sensing tools for unmanned first assessment of post-disaster rubble; iii) provide technical guidelines for the definition of EU recommended material passport of C&DW; iv) overcome the present limitations of C&DW aggregate recycling in concrete by an expert system homogenisation approach; v) test the upcycling of the C&DW fines, that today end up in landfilling, for recycle in a wide range of applications, including preparation of new building materials and environmental remediation. Dissemination initiatives are also foreseen, targeting the scientific, industrial and stakeholder community, as well as the general public. Training activities are also planned (schools, seminars and demonstration events for students and PhD students).