Good practice:

Sustainable management of C&DW by the collection of the Amatrice earthquake's rubbles

On the 06/06/2017, the Lazio Region Administration approved an Act (n. G07943) to manage rubble and materials from the demolition of buildings and from emergency and reconstruction interventions, following the earthquake that hit the municipalities of Amatrice and Accumuli in August 2016. This set the assignment of the completion work of the waste separation, and loading, transportation, recovery and rubbish disposal service. The remaining buildings hit by the earthquake were demolished by providing strategic guidelines to the company, often acting in derogation, in the face of needs for immediate resolution. The rubbles were managed following 4 steps: 1) separation of waste from rubbish; 2) loading on means of transport; 3) transport to authorized plants; 4) recovery and disposal of rubbish in the same location. The separation of wastes from rubbles done by hand by operators in the field. At first Bulky waste CER 200307 and Wood CER 200 138 were separated and in a second step workers on a conveyor belt separated waste from rubble using a Mechanized roughing plant: Plastic CER 170203, Iron CER 170405, CER Card 150101, Textiles CER 200111. At the end of the process, only inert materials remain, characterized with CER 170904 and transported to the R10 environmental recovery plant to be recycled in gravel and other secondary raw materials, ready to be stocked in the market.

AMATRICE HISTORICAL CENTER - LOT A COMPETITION BASIC AMOUNT: 2,000,000.00 € excluding VAT (€ 1,200,000.00 services + € 800,000.00 demolitions)

Rubble Removed from the Center of Amatrice 56,083.10 tons
Rubble treated at the Anas shipyard in Colli sul Velino 37,200.22 tons
Rubble treated at the recovery plant located in Assisi 15,545.22 tons
Sorting wood transported to recovery plants 968.60 tons
Sorting iron transported to recovery plants 1,883.52 tons
Sheath disposal 28.08 tons
Bulky disposal 433.25 tons
Disposal of other types of waste 24.21 tons

The main challanges were due to the emergency occurred immediately after the earhquake: social, psychological and economical affecting the people hit by this phoenomenon. The separation of the different materials was also difficult due to the indifferentiated rubbles to be treated.

Although, the removal of rubble after an earthquake and the separation of the aggregates from the rest of the waste created is not a positive experience for anyone, the Lazio Region has shown that it is possible even to manage C&DW in such a catastrophe following the requirements of the EU Waste Directive. All the steps that have taken place in the separation of waste, in their transport to on-site plants, their treatment up to the recycling of the aggregates, followed a virtuous sustainable process, useful as guidelines for future events.