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| Marble dust can be used as an alternative raw material in cement production | There are about 340 marble plants, including quarries and factories, in the Turkish Afyonkarahisar City Zone. These plants produce 6,611,000 m2/year of processed marble and around 900,000 tonnes/year of marble waste, including marble pieces and dust.
These waste materials are stockpiled in the local environment, with significant impacts on the state of the surrounding ecosystems. Recently, marble pieces have started to be used as a filling material in road construction, but there are no definite projects for the use of marble dust.
In order to recycle the stocked marble waste, the Afyon Cement Plant of Italcementi Group started to use marble dust as an additive material in cement production. This activity was first tested in 1995, and has since continued for the last 12 years. Between 1995 and 2000 only the marble dust was used, despite its high humidity content. To solve this problem, during this period, research for using marble pieces was carried out.
Finally, in 2001, Afyon Cement Plant was able to start using waste marble pieces with a much lower humidity rate than the dust. Up until 2001, marble waste was used only as an additive material. Since then, it has also been used in raw meal production. By 2006, marble waste was used at a rate of
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| Waste marble pieces have a much lower humidity rate than marble dust | 15% in raw meal production at Afyon Cement Plant. Over time, the rate of marble usage at the plant has increased, and problems in finding material of sufficient quality and purity have been experienced. The plant has therefore co-operated with the Marble Manufacturers Union to encourage manufacturers to organise their stocking arrangements to ensure a supply
of good quality material.
In 2006, 96,577 tonnes of marble dust and 42,549 tonnes of marble pieces were used, which resulted in a YTL 189,000 (€ 100,000) cost benefit to the company.The key reasons for using marble waste in cement production are to:
- reduce the environmental impacts of marble waste stockpiling;
- reduce the amount of virgin quarried material (limestone) used by replacing it with marble dust;
- realize a clear economic benefit to the company.
Afyon Cement Plant aims to achieve a 15% rate of use of marble waste in raw meal production.
As a result of this project, on 5 June 2003 and in the year 2005-2006, the Afyon Cement Plant received awards for good environmental practices from the Governor and the Environmental Administration Office.
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