The granite industry generates a large quantity of wastes that pollute and damage the environment. This work aim to characterize and evaluate the possibilities of the use of granite sawing wastes, generated by the industries from Northeast region, as alternative ceramic raw materials for production of ceramic bricks and tiles. Samples of granite sawing wastes were collected from industries located at Paraíba, Ceará and Pernambuco states, and afterwards were characterized for the determination of their particle size distribution, specific mass, surface area (BET) and chemical analyses, differential thermal analysis, GTA, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. After characterization, technological tests were performed in ceramic compositions with the objective of evaluation of the possibilities of the addition of wastes in ceramic masses for the production of ceramic bricks and tiles. The main results show that the wastes have physical and mineralogical characteristics similar to the conventional ceramic raw materials and ceramic bodies. Moreover, the ceramic pieces prepared using the wastes have technical characteristics according to the Brazilian standards for ceramic bricks and tiles.
Recycling; granite wastes; ceramic bricks; ceramic tiles
