Recycling of granite scraps in Sardinia by innovative and economically-viable extraction technology in a context of circular economy

Italy is the world's second-largest feldspar producer (3 million tons/year, 22% of total) and the worldbiggest importer (22% of global world trades) (European Commission). Since the strong demand is rapidlydepleting the proven reserves in EU Member States, the EU ceramics sector is increasingly dependent onfeldspar imports from Turkey. In the future, it will be necessary to find additional sources of feldspar or tofurther increase inter-continental transport. The ever-increasing demand for feldspar, for ceramics, glass andother industrial uses, therefore, requires the extraction of granite and considerable international trade flows. Atpresent, Buddussò-Alà dei Sardi (Sardinia Region-Italy) is the most important granite production area in Italy,with 66 authorised quarries (12 active), 70% of regional granite production and more than 50% of total Italianproduction. However, granite mining activities cause serious environmental problems. In Italy, every year350.000-400.000 m3 of raw granite are extracted (Lucarini et al, 2020) generating the same quantity of waste.Feldspar production and trade generate large amounts of pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions, due either tothe energy consumption of mining activities or from the transport of the finished product from the exportingcountries (mainly Turkey and China). The areas where quarries are active suffer from landscape degradation,due to incomplete compliance or non-compliance with quarry recovery plans, considering that opening newquarries is cheaper than moving large amounts of waste. Finally, granite mining accounts for huge amounts ofsoil consumption, as it requires large areas in which the quarry waste accumulates.The LIFE REGS II project (LIFE19 ENV/IT/000373 LIFE REGS II) aims at demonstrating an innovativeand economically-viable extraction technology to produce feldspars, of the same quality to those obtained fromvirgin raw material, using granite scraps rather than virgin raw material. This will reduce demand for feldsparfrom environmentally-damaging granite mining operations as well as to minimize the soil consumption and toboost the awareness about the importance of recycling granite scraps.The project will contribute to the implementation of the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy, theRoadmap for a Resource Efficient Europe, and Directive 2006/21/EC on the management of waste fromextractive industries.European Commission, Study on the EU's list of Critical Raw Materials (2020) - Factsheets on Non-critical Raw Materials.Lucarini M., Carta R., Fumanti F., Martarelli L. & Serra M. (2020) - "The Italian Database GeMMA: from monitoringproduction to cataloguing mining wastes, a starting point for recovering critical raw materials from abandoned mines?"in European Geologist Journal 49 Mineral raw materials in Europe - Chances and challenges for domestic production.