When industrial waste becomes a resource

Imagine an industry where nothing is wasted, and every byproduct becomes raw material for a new production process.

This is the concept behind industrial symbiosis: when waste from one industrial process becomes the raw material for another. Through this approach, waste no longer goes to landfill—avoiding the associated environmental and financial costs—and instead gains new value. In a world where resources are increasingly scarce, a transition to a circular economy is less a strategic goal and more a necessity, especially for a resource-poor country like Italy.

Ossicolor, a Trentino-based company located in Spormaggiore, specializes in advanced aluminum component processing (primarily for the kitchen industry, among others) and has been environmentally conscious for years. “It’s a natural inclination,” says Dr. Roberto Masciocchi, co-owner of the company alongside Manuel Cecchele, “considering our location in the Adamello Brenta Park.” Aluminum scraps are 100% recovered, and packaging materials are collected and sold to a specialized company.

“But the sludges remained,” Masciocchi continues, referring to the residual byproducts from their aluminum oxidation plant, which are currently sent to landfill. Here’s where prof. Straffelini from the Department of Industrial Engineering (DII) stepped in, a long-time collaborator with Brembo SpA, a major Italian company in the automotive and motorcycle brake industry. A preliminary study showed that the sludge, once properly dried and ground, could become a valuable ingredient for brake pads. Brake pads contain many ingredients, each with a specific function, and the powders derived from Ossicolor’s sludge can replace alumina, which provides abrasiveness needed to control friction during braking.

The promising preliminary results led to the development of a research project called OSSI-GREEN, supported by Provincial Law No. 6/1999 (Autonomous Province of Trento), which promotes research and development funding. The project aims to prevent sludge from being sent to landfill by transforming it into a raw material. Industrial research began with the design of a special drying system for the sludge. “It will operate at low temperatures, below 100°C, to limit pollutant emissions,” explains Dr. Andrea Barbieri of Ossicolor, who is collaborating on the project. Next, specific tests will assess the feasibility of using the dried and ground powders in brake pad manufacturing. This stage includes creating materials with appropriate formulations and testing them using specialized equipment in DII’s labs, such as the inertial dynamometer, which simulates braking processes. “With particular attention,” Professor Straffelini clarifies, “to environmental emissions. Brake pad wear generates fine dust, and the smallest particles can enter the air we breathe, similar to exhaust emissions. We must ensure that adding this new ingredient does not increase emissions but, if possible, reduces them, ensuring that the entire process is truly green.”

The project’s final phase includes Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), an essential but often overlooked step in environmental evaluations, to confirm the sustainability of the entire operation.

Expected to conclude by late 2025, this project is a significant contribution to the ecological transition of industrial processes, marking a critical step toward a more sustainable future. “We won’t keep our results secret,” state Masciocchi and Straffelini, “because we want these practices to become the standard for other companies, both in Trentino and beyond, for the benefit of society as a whole.”