Dental zirconia powder is a common non-hazardous waste from orthodontic laboratories and more than 2000 tons of waste zirconia are treated and disposed yearly. Waste recycling to produce new materials is one of the possible strategies toward sustainable technological development. In this presentation, the sustainable manufacturing of new oil-water separation membranes prepared from dental zirconia waste is discussed. Zirconia-based compounds have outstanding hardness, whiteness, chemical stability, and no toxicity. Our approach combines the advantageous properties of zirconia with reduced production costs, if compared to the commercial zirconia membranes. At the same time, waste is reduced and there is no need to consume materials, time, and energy for producing the nanoparticles usually required for membrane fabrication. Membranes were prepared by spin coating water dispersions of dental zirconia waste on commercial silicon carbide supports. Both the zirconia powders and the obtained membranes were characterized for their chemical physical properties and correlated with the selectivity in olive oil retention and the water permeability.
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