CINEMA HALL / 17 May 2024 / 16:30 - 17:20
Focus Session IV - Sinks in Circular Economy
Moderators:
Prof. Raffaello Cossu, University of Padova (IT)
Prof. Ian Williams, University of Southampton (UK)
Panelists:
Dr. Pierre Hennebert, Consultant (FR)
Prof. Mariachiara Zanetti, Polytechnic University of Turin (IT)
In any Circular Economy strategy solid materials are generated (either as waste or as recycled products), which at the end of the story should find destination in the soil: recycled building materials in civil works (buildings, bridges, roads, embankments, etc.), compost in agriculture soil and residues from the recycling process in long term land repositories.
This accumulation of materials on soil, considering that the largest part of resources used for production of goods is coming from the soil (plants, ores, oil, etc.) could be called "Back to Earth" (BTE).
The Back to Earth is a process which needs to be managed in a sustainable way, assuring that the final BTE sites behave like a sink, where the material balance of contaminants is closed, and no further load (diffused or concentrated) is released to the environment.
Traditional landfilling is often proposed as a sink for Circular Economy but it is widely recognized that this system is unsustainable for several scientific reasons.
This Focus Session will discuss at which conditions a deposit of material on soil could be environmentally sustainable.
