Workshop: Tools for evaluating the real convenience of recycled materials

SESSION E12 / 13 October 2023 / 09:00 - 10:30
Workshop: Tools for evaluating the real convenience of recycled materials
Coordinated by: Maria Cristina Lavagnolo, Giovanni Beggio (IT)

Organised by: WE-Waste End project, MICS (Made in Italy – Circular and Sustainable) Extended Partnership
Received funding from Next-GenerationEU (Italian PNRR – M4 C2, Invest 1.3 – D.D.1551.11-10-2022, PE00000004)


Despite being promoted as a key tool to ease the transition to a circular economy, the definition of unique and centralised EU End-of-waste criteria was not as successful as planned. First, the process is currently decentralised and left to the local authorities, which lack the capacity to identify the qualitative and quantitative information needed for its definition and assessment. Further, no data are always available to base decision on the real convenience of recycled products when compared to the life cycle of nonrecycled ones. To tackle these challenges, a research project started under the MICS (Made in Italy – Circular and Sustainable) Extended Partnership and received funding from Next-GenerationEU (Italian PNRR) trying to: identify the body of fundamental knowledge that should be generated to support the proposition of realistic End-of-Waste criteria; discuss on how the results of life cycle thinking (LCT) analysis could play a role in dispelling the fog on the convenience of recycled products.

Introductory lectures:

• Maria Cristina Lavagnolo – University of Padova (IT)
  MICS and the “Waste End Project”
  
  
• Chiara Castiglioni – Polytechnic University of Milan (IT)
  The importance of generating data about “extensive material characterization” during different life stages of the materials. Chemical composition and modifications, molecular structure and material morphology by means of spectroscopies (IR, Raman, NIR, UV-visible, etc.) microscopies, thermal and mechanical tests
  
  
• Giovanni Beggio – University of Padova (IT)
  The proposition of scientifically-sound approaches useful to understand, define and assess the “environmental impacts” of recycled materials according to their scope of application
  
  
• Paola Gallo Stampino – Polytechnic University of Milan (IT)
  The need to expand the scope of LCT tools (LCA, S-LCA, LCC) by including the impacts derived from the “second life” of recycled materials (e.g., production, usage and after-usage fate) to make use of LCA results
  
  
• Giorgio Bertanza – University of Brescia (IT)
  How industrial symbiosis analysis can highlight the role of reliable and convenient End-of-Waste criteria in the promotion of local circular economy frameworks
  
  
• Patrick Dzoh Fonkou – University of Padova (IT)
  Case studies: plastics
  
  
• Nicola Aversano – Thales Alenia Space (IT)
  Approach to sustainability in Space products