Expected results

LIFE ECO TILES project will:

• Design, implement, fine-tune and optimise a series of three versions of industrial precast-products (Terrazzo tiles) with up to 70% content of recycled CDW building materials (mainly ceramics) and glass waste;
• Adapt and engineer a low-energy industrial process able to manufacture the recycled Terrazzo tiles on an industrial scale, consuming 20% less than traditional processes;
• Produce of 300 m2 of demo products (equating to an average of 6-8 000 sample products of different sizes and shapes) maintaining and potentially improving mechanical and structural characteristics compared to current products made with virgin materials. In particular, an improvement of crucial performances (i.e. resistance to abrasion and moisture absorption), is expected;
• Facilitate the recycling of up to 450 t/year of CDW and construction materials scrap and 3 000 t/year of glass waste, with a potential of around 1 000 times more in Europe if applied to a share of all pre-casted products;
• Produce four protocols for testing and selecting the best waste materials to realise recycled pre-casted products;
• Carry out a technical evaluation of the demonstration and monitoring of performance; environmental monitoring (including full LCA); market/stakeholders impacts (including two market replication scenarios);
• Obtain a reduction of production times and costs, thus demonstrating the applicability of recycled products in high-volume series in the Terrazzo tiles and pre-cast sector;
• Obtain at least 8-10 agreements with waste management companies and construction products for the building of a recycling chain at local level in the Marche region and beyond, in order to ensure a constant flow of waste feedstock.