Zafferana Etnea, Catania City, Italy - Recent

Researchers from the city of Catania in the Italian region Sicily have found a sustainable and eco-friendly way to recycle volcanic ash as renewable materials that can even be used in restoring cultural relics.

On the eastern side of the island of Sicily stands Europe's most volatile volcano – Mount Etna – which began erupting again in February 2021 and is still sending ash, smoke and sparks into the sky.

At an elevation of over 3,300 meters, the volcano erupted several times from July to September this year, which dumped a large amount of ash to nearby cities and towns.

Of these towns, Zafferana Etnea, a municipality in the city of Catania and located southeast of Mount Etna, is the worst affected.

Russo said they have now completed cleanup work in 70 percent of the city's area, including streets and public buildings, with about 11 tons of ash being collected.

To reduce the cost of volcanic ash treatment, a research team from the University of Catania is developing a technology that can turn the ash into useful materials.

Through this method, researchers can turn volcanic ash into building materials, such as bricks and tiles, which are even used in the local restoration projects for cultural relics.

Shotlist:
Zafferana Etnea, Catania City, Italy - Recent:
1. Various of street scenes;
2. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Salvatore Russo, mayor, Zafferana Etnea (ending with shot 3):
"Zafferana Etnea was hit by falling volcanic ash four times from July to September, with the worst case on Aug. 4. In some places, the cumulative ash per square meter weighs about 10 kilograms. We've spent some 840,000 euros in collecting and treating the volcanic ash across our city." ;
3. Various of cars driving on road covered with volcanic ash;
4. Various of volcanic ash on road, vehicles;
5. Various of collected volcanic ash in bags;
Catania City, Italy - Recent
6. Various of man walking into Department of Geology at University of Catania;
7. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Paolo Mazzoleni, professor, Department of Geology, University of Catania (partially overlaid with shots 8-9):
"We want to find a sustainable, carbon-neutral and eco-friendly way to make use of the huge amounts of ash that Mount Etna continues to spew out. Our method is a process called geopolymerization." ;
[SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE]
8. Various of building materials made from volcanic ash;
9. Various of researchers working in lab;
[SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE]
10. Various of researchers turning recycled volcanic ash into useful materials;
11. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Germana Barone, professor, Department of Geology, University of Catania (starting with shot 10/ending with shots 12-13):
"The research is going very well with many important results achieved from the first batch of products developed by us. We'll continue to assess the strength and durability of these materials, and we are ready to work with relevant enterprises to jointly advance the development of this technology." ;
12. Various of pictures showing application of materials turned from volcanic ash;
13. Various of researchers working in lab, building materials on display.

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