Aware project

Environmental awareness means being aware of our limited natural resources, believing in the need to reduce the environmental footprint of industrial activities, perceiving the great value of the circular economy. In this context, recalling the English term of “awareness”, AFV Beltrame Group launches its AWaRe project, for the recovery of all waste (All Waste Recovered). The goal is to achieve a complete valorisation of all solid industrial waste produced in the Group’s plants.

AT CURRENTLY MORE THAN 80% OF THE PROCESS WASTE PRODUCED IN THE GROUP’S PLANTS ARE DIRECTED FOR RECYCLING ACTIVITIES. OUR GOAL IS TO CONSOLIDATE THIS TREND AND REDUCE THE QUANTITY OF WASTE SENT TO LANDFILL TO ZERO.

The concept of industrial waste does not always have a negative value even if it is often prejudicially understood as “garbage”. Many residues can have a new life in various production processes, thanks to their intrinsic properties, which can be exploited further. The reuse of certain categories of waste within the iron and steel process can bring about considerable savings in terms of consumption of raw materials. For example:

• Refinery slag has similar chemical properties to lime and can be reused as a flux in the furnace.
• The refractory used can replace dolomite and bauxite, with a similar function.
• The recovered powder can be blown into the furnace with the aim of recovering its iron, lime, ferroalloy content.

Waste recovery in other industrial activities is typically represented by:

• Industrial aggregate, derived from EAF slag, used in construction in the construction of road infrastructures, in the production of concrete and asphalt.
• Milling scale, a residue that is widely used in the glass and cement industries, in the manufacture of counterweights and in the production of steel in the integral cycle, to replace iron ore.
• Smoke abatement powders, intended for secondary metallurgy operations for the recovery of zinc.

Waste heat recovery plants, on the other hand, are the preferred destination for residues from equipment and plant maintenance activities. The cooperation with the bodies dedicated to waste recovery, the proactive attention towards new markets of secondary materials, the strengthening of the internal R&D activities on the processes, the consolidation of a common “circular mentality” constitute the key elements on which bases the AWaRe project, demonstrating the efficient, sustainable and environmentally friendly management implemented by the AFV Beltrame Group.