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One of the most significant effects of an earthquake is the production of a huge amount of waste. An incorrect management of the rubbles causes relevant environmental damages, economic losses and a psychological impact for the population. In this context, the present manuscript assesses different strategies of waste management, estimating the carbon footprint and the economic impact, in order to define the best choices. Overall, different management options can be applied, that have different costs and impacts on the environment: a temporary storage site could be used, rubbles can be treated through different technologies (either simple crushing or advanced refining), and the treatment can be carried out at different distances from the site of the event. The environmental impact assessment evidenced the importance of an in-situ pre-treatment of the rubbles and of an enhanced refining, addressed at the achievement of high quality inert. On the other hand, the economic analysis suggests that the best option is to transport everything to the treatment site, and to carry out a simple treatment of the rubbles. Consequently, our assessment resulted in conflicting conclusions, where an enhanced treatment of the rubbles is positive, from an environmental point of view, but negative, for the increase in the management costs. The economic criteria are currently pushing any decision taken by the emergency managers; however, the environmental load may have a long-term effect with even more significant economic consequences, and it cannot be neglected.

The geomorphology of the Italian territory causes the incidence of many disasters like earthquakes and floods, with the consequent production of large volumes of waste. The management of such huge flows, produced in a very short time, may have a high impact on the whole emergency response. Moreover, historical data related to disaster waste management are often not easily accessible; on the other hand, the availability of data concerning previous events could support the emergency managers, that have to take a decision in a very short time. In this context, the present paper analyses four relevant recent case studies in Italy, dealing with disaster waste management after geologic and hydrologic natural events. Significant differences have been observed in the quantity and types of generated wastes, and, also, in the management approach. Such differences are mainly associated with the kind of disaster (i.e. earthquake vs. flood), to the geographical location (i.e. internal vs. coastal area), to the urbanisation level (i.e. industrial vs. urban). The study allowed the identification of both strengths and weaknesses of the applied waste management strategies, that represent “lessons to learn” for future scenarios. Even though it deals with Italian case studies, this manuscript may have a high impact also at international level, making available for the first-time emergency waste management data, that are considered an indispensable support for decision makers.