Guardare al passato per migliorare il futuro. Upcycle approach per l’Isola di Vetro.

Murano’s glass, between art, craftsmanship and science, is part of the lagoon ecosystem with its economic importance, recognized excellence at an international level, historical and cultural value. Since the early 2000s, the economic crisis, new safety regulations in the workplace and gas emissions limits into the atmosphere have, well before the current health emergency, put at risk the functioning of such delicate dynamics. This paper describes the first results and future objectives of an ongoing research, funded by the Veneto Region with POR-FSE 2014-20 funds: the aim is to investigate Murano’s traditional glass manufacturing processes in order to identify, quantify and then classify the waste resulting from the different craftsmanships activities that are part of Murano’s history and are still present in the Island of Glass. Through an analytical and multidisciplinary approach, the final objective of this work is to design an innovative pathway for successfully reusing waste resulting from the manufacturing of Murano’s glass, by developing and then creating a new composite material to be used in the construction and design sector, without neglecting the aspect of environmental and economic sustainability. Greater attention will be given to approaches of reusing waste that can be easily implemented and applied by the master glassmakers themselves, thus favoring a circular economy for the relaunch of Murano.