Converting waste from the dimension stone industry into sustainable environmental resources. Current trends, market opportunities and future outlooks

Quarrying activity plays a key-role in the global economy since various productive sectors depend on it. In particular, there is a strong correlation between the construction sector and the natural stone industry. In fact, when building activity increases, there is greater demand for dimension stones. As a result, large amounts of stone waste are produced and frequently dumped, leading to likely environmental risks. By analyzing the global stone production and its trend in time, along with the related waste amounts, this work will highlight both the risks and opportunities of re-using natural stone waste in order to manufacture high-quality by-products to be used for different civil engineering applications. The analysis will be carried out from both the economic and the environmental points of view.