Use of stone wool by-products in the construction of sanitary landfills and tailing dams

The delay of the introduction of a used item or residual material in the ‘‘waste circuit’’ is a key factor of an effective and environmentally sound waste management policy. This principle has been fully adopted by the European legislation and consequently, in most of the member countries. In the same time, re-use of low cost materials or, even better, by-products in environment protection works (sanitary landfills, mineral processing residues dams, etc.) could make easier the effective implementation of an environmentally sound waste management policy, especially in developing countries. However, the assessment of the recovery options has to be performed on the basis of proper technical specifications concerning the kind of reuse proposed and of an accurate investigation on the technical and environmental properties of the residue. The present article reports the results of a research programme aiming at evaluating the feasibility of use of stone wool by-products, usually directly disposed in landfills, as construction materials for sanitary landfills and tailing dams.