Production of glass–ceramic bodies from the bottom ashes of municipal solid waste incinerators

The bottom ashes coming from two different municipal solid waste incinerators were vitrified at 1400 °C. The obtained glass, mixed with other wastes coming from metallurgical and mineral industrial wastes, was used as raw material for the production of glass–ceramic tiles. Two different mixtures were used for the tile production: (a) glass from bottom ashes plus corundum-based waste from an aluminum foundry and (b) glass from bottom ashes plus kaolin-based waste from the kaolin ore extraction process. The tiles were prepared in air by a low-cost, low-temperature pressureless sintering process and were morphologically and mechanically characterized. The sintered materials were found to be good candidates for building applications (tiles, bricks, etc.), i.e. they showed bending strengths up to about 60 MPa and Young modulus up to about 53 GPa.