How to quickly characterize construction and demolition wastes? Traditional and advanced portable solutions in comparison

Nowadays it is pivotal to develop innovative solutions fostering sustainability and circularity in the construction sector. This paper presents a comparison between a traditional method (e.g. FTIR) and two advanced portable solutions, namely MicroNIR and HSI, to characterize materials. The former is based on Near Infrared spectroscopy and is commonly used for materials characterization; conversely, the latter is based on image analysis. In the framework of the European project RECONSTRUCT, these techniques will be applied to construction and demolition waste (CDW) field with the aim of developing a classification database, and therefore a library, that can be used for the management of wastes in a fast, reliable, and cost-effective way in view of extending sustainability and circularity models also to the construction sector, with the final aim of CDW valorization.