Circular economy

Speaking about circular economy in the construction sector is a huge challenge which Mapei embraced and for which it proposes innovative solutions and systems.

Road additives

Sustainability and circularity in road sector: ACF Mapei additives enable an intense usage of the asphalt wearing course instead of being disposed as bituminous conglomerates.
Mapei additives, ACF-L1, ACF-L2 and ACF-L3 enable the recycling of RAP – Recycled Asphalt Pavement, by building up the mortar fraction lost when the bitumen is oxidated.

The environmental benefits coming from these products is massive, starting from the avoiding of the landfill disposal (environmental footprint very high), passing through the decrease of the asphalt wearing course fraction with the goal to give a new life to bituminous aggregates. We measured the environmental benefits coming from the ACF, by means LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) method.

To give an additional boost to our study, we involved Assolombardia Green Economy Network in cooperation with GEO (Green Economy Observatory) of IEFE (Università Bocconi), which was promoting the CERCA (Circular Economy come Risorsa Competitiva per le Aziende) project, aiming at the identification and measure of the circular economy approach in company practices.

Circular Economy
Best Performer Award

Mapei was awarded with the Circular Economy Best Performer Award 2019/2020 promoted by Confindustria. Mapei stand out in the ‘Large Manufacturer Company’’ category with a project which enables the production of low environmental impact asphalts, thanks to the reuse of a massive quantity of waste. With Mapei’s additives ACF-L1, ACF-L2 and ACF-L3 a huge quantity of RAP is recycled, and it’s used as bituminous aggregates for new concrete production.

The lower usage of raw materials, the lower quantity of RAP that would have been disposed and the lower energy requested for heating processes make this solution much more sustainable than classics bituminous solutions.

Iren-Mapei Agreement

Mapei is the world leader in chemical products in construction sector and Iren is one of the most dynamic multiutility in the Italian scenario. Together we signed an agreement regarding the reuse of polyethylene and polypropylene coming from the waste collection to obtain road asphalts more sustainable and durable.

MAPEI started developing new polymers for the modification of bituminous aggregates, with the goal of implementing an innovative technology that enables a significant increasing in the useful life of road asphalts, by using recycled polymers coming from an integrated recovery chain.

IREN, by Iren Ambiente SPA, has the control of I.Blu Srl, main national exponent in plastic packaging recycling sector.

Iren developed a new process for the realization of a recycled Blupolymer to be used for bituminous conglomerates production (Polymer Modified Asphalt)

RE-CON ZERO EVO

Added directly in truck mixers, RE-CON ZERO EVO it’s able to transform, by few minutes of mixing, the returned concrete, which normally would have been disposed, in aggregates that could be totally recovered and recycled to produce new concrete.

Thanks to RE-CON ZERO EVO it’s possible to avoid landfill disposal for returned concrete, reducing road transportation, and reducing the extraction activities and the exploitation of natural resources and water for truck washing and concrete production.

From the environmental point of view RE-CON ZERO EVO treatment of a cubic meter of concrete enable the saving, in term of avoided emissions, of the 97% (260 kg CO2eq) with respect to the landfill disposal.

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