Economia circolare e nuova vita per i prodotti di demolizione edilizia. Circular economy and new life for building demolition products

In Italy the demolition of buildings is not considered as one of the phases in the life of building materials but it is still considered as equivalent to their end of life. Although demolition is avoided as a disgrace in our country, the collapse of buildings as well as entire building complexes, due to earthquakes or floods or other disasters, can happen anyway. So what is the attitude towards the mass of indistinct rubble? It is the transport to waste or the displacement of building waste that continuously changes the Italian landscapes, creating new volumes of rubble, filling the river beds or increasing relief. Just a very small portion is reused and generally for road sub-bases. It is clear that we can no longer afford this kind of consumerist attitude, both for the economy of the construction sector and for the waste of resources. Therefore, a national regulation leading to the certification of demolition products so that they can re-enter the produc-tion cycle as secondary raw materials, innovating the construction sector with new compatible technologies, is increas-ingly urgent. The paper presents the progress of a comparative research between Italy and Spain by first comparing the rules in force in the two European countries, standards and applications for the reuse of waste from demolition and recycling as build-ing secondary raw materials. The authors present their activities in laboratory of Technical University of Madrid as european collaboration in research experience about new technologies starting from design of demolition products coming from building in structural concrete. The case study of the demolition of an office building in Tres Cantos (Madrid) offered an exceptional opportunity for some experimental tests on new aggregates for recycling.