Valorisation and Reuse of Cereal Wastes for Construction Applications in a Circular Economy Perspective: A Review of the State of the Art

Nowadays it is well-known, also by the general public, that the uncontrolled use of non-renewable natural resources, the energy demand increase, and the pollutants emission into the atmosphere have a devastating impact on the environment, on human health, and the society in general. In this scenario, construction is a high concerning sector; hence, there is an urgent need to employ materials with low environmental impact for all those activities connected to the sector, such as construction or redevelopment of buildings, structures and infrastructures according to the required high-performance standards. Moreover, another problem is the generation of enormous quantities of wastes and by-products whose disposal often poses many difficulties, not considering that the usual landfilling causes an additional environmental burden. This study is a part of a doctoral research supported by a PNRR project aimed at the R&D of materials, products and systems for buildings energy improvement, through the valorisation and reuse of secondary raw materials. In particular, this work presents the state of the studies on wastes deriving from the cereal sector, analyzing how they can be reused for the production of more sustainable building materials intended for energy performance improvement as demanded by the current European and national regulations. Cereal wastes reuse, like most of those resulting from the agricultural sector, represents a valid opportunity for a greener construction, also promoting a sustainable approach from the circular economy perspective and in line with the Minimum Environmental Criteria. Therefore, valorisation and reuse of recycled materials in construction would not only reduce their environmental impact, but would also contribute to increase sustainability in construction, a sector that still presents many critical issues connected not only to the actual construction practices, but also to all those activities of production and management that characterize buildings.