Management of production processes, for the improvement of the environmental situation at the local level. The case of place affected by the presence of marble quarries.

The European Commission, through its policies and action plans (Sustainable Production and Consumption, Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC, Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe - COM(2011) 571, Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP), Ecoinnovation Action Plan (EcoAP), Europe 2020, Europe 2050), aims to promote industrial innovation of products and processes in order to reduce environmental impacts. The overall objective is to reduce the environmental impacts associated with production processes and promote industrial scenarios that integrate with the context. One of the possible strategies for the reduction of the environmental impacts generated by industry is the waste/scraps recycling and reuse (turning them into secondary raw material). This aims is possible through an optimized design of process, product and its life cycle. Currently there are many manufacturing sectors in which there is a considerable production of waste products and in many cases these scraps are landfilled with the result of wasting natural resources. One of the sectors that generate many scraps/waste is the natural stone in which for every ton of material produced, at least a ton of scrap material is destined to local special landfill. The research project analyse the environmental issues connected to stone production processes, by focusing on the very significant scraps production and on the possible ways for reducing and reusing them. Intervening on this aspect of the production of natural stone makes possible to obtain many benefits, both at the global scale (pollution reduction, improvement of the environmental profile of the product, sustainable products, etc), both at the local scale (control of the orographic changes, landfill management, reduction of local impacts such as land consumption, etc). The aim of this research is to suggest possible strategic scenarios that may improve the environmental impact of the supply chain and the product, through the assessment and reuse of pre-consumer scraps. The scenarios will be supported by environmental assessments (namely LCA) and by a method for managing the material flow (namely GIS) of scraps/waste within the stone industrial districts.