LIFE

LIFE ENVIRONMENT |
LIFE and the circular economy
“The quality is the same because the chemistry is
the same, but the production process is smelly due
to elements in the recycled scraps – we are working
to stop that!” says Maria Savina Pianesi, the project
leader.
Formulations were tested in the laboratory before being produced on a pilot industrial scale
– white, beige and black – were chosen to create a
new green product line, ecogreen.
Costs and benefits
The next step was the delivery at the end of the project
of sample ‘green sinks’ to several of the company’s
customers to appear in their showrooms. According
to the beneficiary, the feedback has been
positive and the demand for green products is high,
but at present the cost is not sufficiently competitive.
“Consumers may pay 5-10% extra for a green product
but not 30-40%,” says Mr Bertini.
The high cost relates to the process of breaking down
the old sink material with liquid nitrogen. DELTA
doesn’t have the capacity to perform this grinding operation
itself and the materials are thus transported
to a specialist and that adds to the cost. Recovered
internal material can be three times as expensive as
material from external sources as a result.
But external recycled quartz is cheaper than virgin
material though it is of inferior quality and not perfectly
white. The variable composition of the material,
which can contain silicon and other minerals, creates
an added difficulty. Nevertheless, part of the success
of the project was to show that a composite of high
quality could still be produced from secondary materials.
Moreover, it showed that it was technologically
feasible to then use this green composite material to
produce sinks on an industrial scale.
Furthermore, by not using extracted raw materials,
which are typically transported long distances,
production of the new line of sinks consumes less
energy and, as a result, has a cost-saving advantage.
The project calculated that the line allows for a
64.5% reduction in energy consumption, as well for
CO 2
emissions to be more than halved (56.3%).
Scaling up
Further energy savings and environmental benefits
could result from using more raw material from closed
loop recycling. The project succeeded in producing
green formulations with around 22% of the total recovered
fillers deriving from the re-use of its scraps. In
total, the project recycled 7.84 tonnes of PMMA, 1.61
tonnes of MMA and 27.55 tonnes of quartz.
The ecogreen sinks have been commercially available
since 2015 and Plados-Telma’s marketing team
is working to build acceptance. “We want to move
this step by step,” says Mr Bertini. Following the project,
the company has been contacted by an American
customer, “one of the largest manufacturers of
worktops in the world”, requesting additional formulations,
he adds. The company’s business plan is to
sell 10 000 green sinks in 2016-2018. This would
help to avoid around 140 tonnes of waste being sent
of landfill, with quartz accounting for more than 60%
of this amount. Moreover, 490 tonnes of CO 2
and 5
130 000 MJ equivalent of energy would be saved
due to the use of recycled MMA and PMMA in comparison
to current sink production.
In terms of socio-economic benefits, it would also
lead to an increase in turnover and profits of 7-8%,
creating opportunities for further jobs in addition to
the two graduates employed full time as a result of
the project.
Project number: LIFE12 ENV/IT/000736
Title: LIFE GREEN SINKS - Realization of green composite
sinks substituting organic and mineral primary materials by
recovered waste
Beneficiary: DELTA Srl
Contact: Antonio Bugiolacchio
Email: antonio.bugiolacchio@plados.it
Website: www.greensinks.com/en/
Period: 01-Jul-2013 to 01-Jul-2015
Total budget: €1 581 000
LIFE contribution: €767 000
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