Ultra Thin White Topping is a road hardening innovation, applied to pilot projects in Frysland and Overijssel by Schagen Infra BV. To replace damaged asphalt sustainably, the company renovated the degenerated road surface using a thin layer of cement with polyseter fibers mixed in, thus reducing resource consumption and enabling full material recovery at end-of-life stage.
Prespaglia offers a product line of modular blocks of pressed straw for the construction sector. The modular eco-blocks are made of straw, clay and pozzolan lime, making them entirely recyclable and biodegradable.
SK-Tex takes old clothing and turns it into products that can be used in cars, furniture and buildings. The company has been in operation since 1998, beginning as a textile raw materials trading company before developing into a recycling company.
Every year, 2.5 billion tonnes of waste is produced in Europe. Thanks to its production process, the cement industry is able to use waste both as a fuel source and for secondary mineral materials.
Taking advantage of the eternal recyclability of Gypsum, Saint-Gobain's gypsum subsidiary already launched a voluntary and ambitious policy in 2000 to encourage the recycling of pre- and post-consumer gypsum waste.
Glass wool is infinitely and completely recyclable. Regardless of the glass wool’s quality, age, density or other properties, the material is entirely recyclable and can be re-melted as many times as necessary, before entering into the composition of new insulating products, without having its final quality impacted.
The overall objective of PAPERCHAIN is to deploy five novel circular economy models centred in the valorisation of the waste streams generated by the Pulp and Paper Industry (PPI)
French cement producers plan to increase alternative fuels use from 44% of the fuel mix to 50%, by 2025. To support this initiative, they aim, in collaboration with construction and recycling trade organisations, to double the amount of wood waste used in the energy supply of cement plants.
The EU cement industry supports the promotion of industrial symbiosis and the recognition of energy recovery as a waste management solution for non-recyclable waste. The use of waste materials in the cement industry with a simultaneous energy recovery and material recycling, referred to as co-processing, contributes towards achieving the objectives of the circular economy.
The FISSAC project involves stakeholders at all levels of the construction and demolition value chain to develop a methodology and software platform, to facilitate information exchange, that can support industrial symbiosis networks and replicate pilot schemes at local and regional levels.
Delete’s Waste recycled products are manufactured by recycling and reusing materials created at Delete’s demolition locations.
The EU-funded SwitchMed Programme supports and connects stakeholders to scale-up social and eco-innovations in the Mediterranean. It promotes inclusive growth, job creation and sustainable development by supporting policy makers, eco-innovative small and medium sized enterprises, industries, start-ups and entrepreneurs in the Southern Mediterranean countries.
The EU-funded SwitchMed Programme supports and connects stakeholders to scale-up social and eco innovations in the Mediterranean.
DGNB: The German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) is a central knowledge platform for sustainable building and provides the world’s most advanced sustainable building certification system which makes Circular Economy aspects measurable and assessable.
Cement recarbonation refers to the process where part of the CO2 emitted during the cement production is re-absorbed by concrete in use through carbonation.
As an adviser for environmental and climate policy, Leon de Graaf particularly follows policies related to the circular economy, trade and climate, low-emission mobility, implementation of the Paris climate agreement (COP21) and the European emission trading system (EU ETS). He is also deputy manager of BusinessEurope's corporate Advisory and Support Group (ASGroup). Prior to joining BusinessEurope, Leon worked at the research consultancy Ecorys, focusing on renewable energy and international development issues, at DG COMP on energy and environmental subsidies in Europe, and at the Dutch Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) on indirect ETS costs for energy-intensive industries. Leon has a MSc in environmental economics and climate change from the London School of Economics, and a BSc in business economics from the University of Groningen.
The cement industry and LafargeHolcim under the Geocycle brand, have developed strong expertise in coprocessing. This latter refers to the simultaneous recovery of energy and the recycling of mineral materials within one single industrial process: cement manufacturing. This waste treatment solution allows 100% of the material input to be recovered or recycled in the production process.
ReMade in Italy® is the first certification scheme accredited in Italy to verify the content of recycled materials in a product.
The BAMB project is an innovation action within the EU funded Horizon 2020 program.
BAMB will enable a systemic shift where dynamically and flexibly designed buildings can be incorporated into a circular economy. Through design and circular value chains, materials in buildings sustain their value – in a sector producing less waste and using less virgin resources.