Industrial symbiosis and strategies to enhance pavement sustainability

In civil and environmental field, the general approach to move towards more sustainable strategies includes, among others - reducing virgin materials, using recycled materials, reducing energy consumption and environmental impacts. Towards achieving a vision of sustainability, the Cooperativa trasporti Imola Scrl (CTI) decided to collaborate with Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering (DICAM), University of Bologna. The study aims to evaluate the envirnonmental and physicomechanical performances of designed asphalt mixtures by means of hot technologies and recycled materials. The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to evaluate the current environmental impacts, to identify critical aspects and to suggest improvement actions. The proposed approach in the production of asphalt mixtures promotes the Industrial Symbiosis (IS), using primary and secondary materials which came from local/regional industrial activities, located close to CTI company. By definition, it supports the circular economy (CE) and its principles, according to Directive 2008/98/CE.