Recycled Aggregates and Circular Economy: The Case of Centrifuged Reinforced Concrete Poles for Electric Power Lines

Several solutions are currently under investigation with the aim to reduce environmental impact of concrete production processes. These solutions often consist of partially/totally replacing ordinary “natural” constituents with recycled ones, in view of the twofold objective of both reducing the raw materials demand and the amount of waste to be disposed in landfills. This paper summarizes the results of an industrial R&D project aimed at evaluating the feasibility of recycling dismissed concrete poles for the production of new precast centrifuged reinforced concrete elements made of Recycled Concrete Aggregates. The results show that it is possible to obtain recycled concrete poles with mechanical performances compatible to the ordinary ones, provided that an adequate processing procedure are adopted for transforming concrete debris in recycled aggregates and a specific design method is required for the structural concrete mixture composition. Finally, a specific Life-Cycle Analysis with the aim to quantify the environmental impacts of the proposed recycling procedure.