Construction and demolition waste landfills: A source of resources (2024)
"From the seventies of the last century, with the significant increase in reinforced concrete construction, the deposition of materials and products resulting from construction, in particularly demolition, was carried out in large quantities in fields, some previously exploited as quarries or gravel pits and on the coast. These actions were intended to mask the resulting scars of exploitation processes and remodel the landscape, but also to fill in valleys or land depressions, without great productive potential. On the zores islands, there are also several landfills resulting from the deposition of waste from the demolition of buildings damaged by earthquakes and materials resulting from landslides, such as debris flows and rockfall. These deposits mainly contain masonry materials, stone and cement blocks, bricks, clay and fiber cement tiles, pieces of wood mixed with soil, rocks, and trees, in addition to bituminous mixtures from the repavement of streets. Many of these materials could be potentially reusable in a more circular economy, as opposed to the continuous exploitation of resources, accumulation of waste, and rising production costs."