Sustainable aggregates resource management: approach within South East Europe

Earth scientists, geologists, are involved not only in fundamental research projects, but also in applied projects. Most applied projects are multidisciplinary and have as their goal the solution of different open and ongoing challenges that society faces. An important set of these projects deals with the provision of an adequate and secure supply of raw materials. Within such projects many questions are addressed by geologists, who are able to utilize their geological knowledge to collect relevant data, analyze those data and to compile it into comprehensive information that provides a solid base for sound decision making. Geologists can best perform these tasks when they are aware of the need for information, the potential contribution of geology and other disciplines, and prevailing societal paradigm of sustainable development.
   Consider, for example, the case of aggregates (crushed stone, sand and gravel), which
are crucial for infrastructure and construction. Their importance and role in the societies has evolved over time, and last few decades have seen dynamic changes. In parallel to these changes, the role of aggregates resource geologists has also changed, due to the requirements for data and information related to resources. In the increasingly complex world that we face more and more diverse geological information is required, not only information on deposit quantity and quality, but also other geo-oriented information that supports the economic, environmental and social aspects of deposit, quarry development, and the whole mine life cycle.
   Many countries are rich in aggregates, but supply is not coordinated, which is the case within South East Europe. Among many challenges are illegal and damaging quarries, unreclaimed sites, limited recycling, and community opposition. Primary aggregates can only be extracted where they occur, but quarrying has had environmental and social impacts, including inefficient usage of water and energy, air pollution, and community disruption. These have given the industry a negative image, intensified by illegal quarrying, limited recycling of construction and demolition (C&D) wastes, and minimal use of quarry and industrial by-products.
   Geologists form a major part of the project team of the South East Europe project entitled “Sustainable Aggregates Resource Management”. Main objectives of the project are to develop a common approach to sustainable aggregate resource management (SARM) and sustainable supply mix (SSM) planning, at three scales, to ensure efficient and secure supply in South East Europe. Efficient, low socio-environmental impact, quarrying and waste management is SARM. SSM promotes the use of multiple sources of aggregates, including recycled wastes and industrial by-products (slag) that together maximize net benefits of aggregate supply across generations. At the site level, the issues are high environmental impacts, limited recycling, the need for stakeholder consultation and capacity building, and lack of social license to operate. At the regional/national level, the issues are policies and regulations affecting aggregates that: do not address resource and energy efficiency or EU guidelines, preclude the use of recycled materials and industrial by-products, and fail to address aggregate consumption in long-term sustainable development and spatial planning. The transnational issues are lack of capacity and lack of coordination on aggregates production and transport among nations.
   The project partnership has the requisite expertise for implementing the project, achieving the objectives and producing the planned outputs. These include: Recommendations on environmentally and socially acceptable quarrying, prevention of illegal quarrying, quarry waste management and opportunities for increasing the rate of recycling of quarry waste and construction and demolition waste, implementation of relevant EU legislation, and aggregates policy and management; manuals on SARM and SSM at the regional, national and transnational spatial scales, and methodology of life cycle assessments in the primary and secondary aggregates sectors.