L’innovazione circolare dei blocchi per murature: soluzioni che nobilitano il rifiuto

The challenges to be overcome for the ecological transition are numerous, including giving value to waste by reintroducing it into processes from the point of view of the circular economy. The construction sector is responsible for 35% of waste and 50% of raw material extraction in Europe. The latest document on the Building CAM-Minimum Environmental Criteria (Ministerial Decree 23.06.2022) brought back to Italy some solutions proposed at a European level: encouraging the use of recycled content in construction products and conceiving innovative materials. The comparison between the minimum percentages of Secondary Raw Material (SRM) required by the CAM decrees, issued from 2011 to today, seems to highlight a slow innovation, despite the ferment that the sustainability objectives are producing. To verify which solutions the research area is proposing, the in-depth study was conducted on blocks for opaque vertical external closings/internal partitions, a category of products that is the expression of a tradition that over time has been able to renew itself to respond to updated construction and comfort needs. By intercepting research groups experimentations on a global scale, the study showed that in the last decades innovative blocks have been conceived with a high content of recycled material deriving from special and urban waste. However, few products are already on the market and efforts are needed to promote awareness. The sustainability of traced elements goes beyond the type and entity of SRM, for example production processes with low CO2 emissions and full recyclability at the end of their life which contribute to reducing the environmental footprint. The topic development will have to be followed to understand how many patents and unpatented experimental research will become commercialized products but also what is the predisposition of designers and clients to accept this kind of innovation.