The use of marginal materials, inside bituminous conglomerates, such as rubber powder deriving from exhausted tires, milled asphalt or slag from steel mills, constitutes a practice of strategic importance for environmental protection and prevention of pollution.
Every year, over 350,000 tons of tires reach the end of their life in Italy following the replacement on cars, motorcycles, trucks, agricultural and industrial vehicles of tires no longer suitable for circulation. Renovated correctly, this material could be used as an additional component in bituminous conglomerates to asphalt 8,330 km of 7.5 m wide roads, equal to 7 and a half times the distance between Milan and Palermo, more than double the entire Italian highway network. The asphalts thus created are characterised by a series of advantages over common pavements such as, for example, greater safety, lower maintenance costs, less noise pollution and all benefiting the environment, the economy and the entire community.
The reuse of by-products from the steel industry processes can guarantee the packaging of eco-sustainable road surfaces, capable of combining environmental benefits (reduced consumption of virgin aggregate, reduction of industrial disposal), and performance.
The milled material, or the material resulting from the demolition of an old road pavement, is recyclable several times and unlike high materials from C&D in addition to the volume of aggregate, it also allows the recovery of the binding power of bitumen.
The eco-sustainability of the road blends described above can be further increased if innovative production and laying techniques are foreseen, which Pesaresi Giuseppe Spa is able to implement. Warm technology, for example, provides for the packaging of the so-called lukewarm bituminous conglomerates, blends characterised by lower production and laying temperatures (even by 30 ÷ 40 ° C) than those of conventional hot laying (in which it operates above 150 ° C). The main benefits deriving from the use of Warm conglomerates can be found in the reduction of the environmental impact compared to traditional blends (lower production energy and reduction of fumes and harmful emissions), with consequent improvement in the working conditions of the operators, as well as advantages operational (possible longer plant-site distances, extended paving periods).
his process will allow to implement the strategies necessary to analyze energy consumption, to activate energy performance plans, objectives and indicators to reduce consumption and to identify opportunities to improve energy efficiency.
The first step of this long journey is found in the energy diagnosis of its production plants: verifying and controlling the consumption and energy costs associated with its production processes is essential for adopting the correct management and energy saving policies.
The interventions that will be implemented by the Company will aim at rationalising energy flows, identifying more energy efficient technologies and recovering dispersed energy.