Slag from incineration

Due to the obligation to guarantee that the market receives certified end-products that are repetitive in time, in a context of the greatest transparency and confidence in its operations, some time ago Officina dell’Ambiente decided to resort to a raw material consisting basically of the slag resulting from the process of incineration of solid urban waste. This avoids the need to resort to unsuitable mixtures of waste of different types with matrices differing from one another, that could give rise to imbalances in the quality received by end users.

Since this slag consists of a heterogeneous mixture of fragments of inert materials, rich in valuable mineral components, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, ceramic, glass and other materials, it is obvious that in the case of Officina dell’Ambiente we should not speak of a waste storage and treatment facility of the conventional type, which would have a negative impact on the public opinion due to the broad variety of the waste received. Rather, it is better to speak of a real industrial slag optimisation system having the aim of recovering the valuable components that can be re-cycled and of avoiding unsustainable disposal at a landfill, as has been done in recent years.

At Officina dell’Ambiente ‘s facility, the slag is recovered by means of a series of physical and mechanical treatments such as screening, crushing, separation of the ferrous and non-ferrous metals, without adding any chemical reagents, with the aim of producing a secondary raw material to which the name of Matrix® has been given.

Alongside the system providing the main process, in the Spring of 2007 Officina dell’Ambiente added a new particle-size-based separation line, that refines Matrix® so as to obtain fractions characterised by the following particle sizes

• Sand Matrix (particle size comprised between 0 and 2 mm or, as an alternative, between 0 and 4 mm), suitable for use in the production of bricks to make the clay leaner, in the production of bituminous conglomerate as a fine aggregate and in the production of concrete artefacts;
• AGMatrix (particle size comprised between 2 and 8 mm), suitable for use as aggregate for the production of concrete, concrete artefacts and tiles.