Digital Process for Non-Standard Elements Fabrication from C&D Materials

Abstract

The paper illustrates some of the results of the interdepartmental research Prosit “PROgettare in SostenibilITà: qualification and digitization in construction”, analyzing some of the key steps aimed at testing, compatibly with the regulatory and technological framework, new possible applications of recycled materials from construction and demolition (C&D) in sustainable and innovative supply chains. The Eurostat report “Recovery rate of construction and demolition waste” of 2022 shows how Italy, already in 2018, starts to recover about 98% of the waste from C&D activities considered non-hazardous, mainly for the construction of embankments and road foundations. The research, therefore, identifies in the use of file-to-factory technologies a possible way to extend the scope of application of the reuse of these resources to the realization of diversified and non-standard manufactures and components, in the perspective of a greater spread of virtuous practices of circular economy in the construction sector. In this sense, a process “algorithm” is described, designed to be scaled and replicated in different contexts for similar purposes.