LIFE FORTURE at ECerS 2019: raw materials and circular economy in ceramic tile design

The XVI ECerS Conference took place in Turin from June 16 to 20, 2019, bringing together scientists, researchers, engineers and industry leaders from around the world to discuss recent advances in ceramic science and technology.

The ECerS Conference series, held every two years, is an important international forum for sharing research and product developments across a wide range of ceramic-related fields. Within this context, the LIFE FORTURE project contributed to the discussion on how circular economy principles can be applied to ceramic tile manufacturing.

Eva Magdalena Gualtieri, from the project team, presented the speech “Towards a circular economy in the ceramic tile industry – Considering the raw materials origin and transportation mode in novel materials design”.

The presentation showed the results of an analysis carried out on six raw material mixtures for the production of porcelain stoneware tiles. In the mixtures considered, extra-EU raw materials were progressively replaced by European raw materials, with the aim of assessing how raw material origin and transport mode can influence the sustainability of ceramic product design.

The contribution highlighted one of the key themes of LIFE FORTURE: eco-design is not limited to product aesthetics or technical performance, but also includes supply choices, logistics and the environmental implications of the value chain.

The conference was attended by Eva Magdalena Gualtieri, as speaker, and Cristina Siligardi.

The presentation slides are available in the Deliverables section of this website.