Sustainability

Subsoil exploitation

All subsoil resources will be exhausted sooner or later. Therefore rocks and minerals will not be extracted by men forever. This is why, like with energy, it is necessary to use them in an appropriate, efficient way, without wasting them and above all, supporting and encouraging the recycle of materials. But, apart from the problem of limited availability of subsoil resources, there are many more general problems related to pollution deriving from extraction activities. In fact, among those human activities with a high environmental impact, there certainly is the extraction of lithoids (clay, sand, gravel, stones, etc.) on water streams, hillsides or plains. Very often quarry owners abandon the quarry in such a degraded condition that it is no longer possible to recover it. For a few years different operations have been promoted, aiming at the environmental restoration of these quarries. The main objective is the reinsertion of the previously excavated areas into the surrounding environment, respecting the landscape, the quality of the water and of the soil that are located close to the mine, and which are often heavily polluted due to extraction activities. The best restoration is obtained if the quarry exploitation plan includes from the very beginning the recovery of the entire area, instead of waiting for the depletion of the resources and the end of the activities. In fact, it is much more difficult to act afterwards. Restoration works have to be carried out during excavation and not afterwards. In order to do so, it is possible to use the machines and equipment that are already present in the building site, with a clear reduction of costs.