Using agricultural by-products for creating innovative technologies and materials

Abstract

According to the blue economy, recycling and reusing materials can be an innovative as well as productive venture. In particular in the building sector, which mostly affects the ecosystem, sustainable issues require the chance of employing resources from the wastes. A brief introduction about the wastes from the construction sector is outlined, including the idea that within pre-existing fabrics, management of wastes produced by the rehabilitation and completion works creates potential of conventional products’ reuse. A contribution is given to environmental cost of wastes’ conversion from C&D into resource: mainly of those products based on organic compounds employed in the building chain. The first part of the research develops in fact an analysis on economic and environmental scenario of management for C&D sector’s waste. The paper will then continue with the central subject: investigating the use of agricultural by-products in construction and how vegetable prime matter could be applied will be examined, mainly for the nonstructural external walls, as vertical closure, or internal partition. Some evaluation regarding the application of by-products will be presented, and a comparison will be shown between synthetic and vegetable C&D wastes, by means of data – run through LCA procedure – which are based on the indicator of emitted CO2, both by prime matter transformation processes and by disposal/conversion of the building-derived trash. The potential of some agricultural by-products will be analyzed, with European examples, enterprise’s experiences, and innovative start-ups promoted in south Italian regions. The correct management of agricultural by-products and their conversion into systems, products, or technologies, or more generally into materials for the building sector, allows to promote biological end of life for technical components of the building system.