ABSTRACT
Europe produces about 1.3 billion tons per year of sludge which comes principally from the manufacturing industries and mineral processing. This huge amount produces a severe impact on the environment and drives European Governments to promoting any process that will enable its reduction and/or possible valorisation.At this purpose, waste can be submitted to a high temperature sintering process in order to convert it into more environmentally friendly products, which will still be classified as waste but with little dangerous effect on the environment and public health. A number of researchers have demonstrated, for example, a reduced leaching from sintered products as compared to the original waste (Wunsch et al. 1996, Ozaki et al. 1997, Wiebusch et al. 1998, Favoni et al. 2005).
