Born again from rubble
In December 2016, Bouygues Construction began renovating two heritage buildings in the heart of Paris. Rather than producing new concrete for the reconstruction project, they partnered with LafargeHolcim’s business in France to turn the sites’ rubble — the waste left behind after construction and demolition — into ready-to-use concrete. Using our aggneo® solutions, our teams in France were able to make use of all inert material, turning 12.5% into new concrete products and 87.5% into new road gravels.
Transporting, sorting and recycling 4,000 tons of demolition materials meant that we preserved that same amount of natural resources from quarry extraction. More than 500 tons of this waste was then recycled to make new concrete, contributing to a reduction in CO2 emissions of up to 8% for 1 ton of recycled aggregates.
The two renovated buildings now comply with France’s green building standards (“Haute Qualité Environnementale” or HQE) as well as Europe’s targets for the recycling of construction and demolition waste. This circular economy project is also an illustration of how the solutions driven by our sustainability strategy (The 2030 Plan) can be used to overcome the real-life building challenges faced by our customers and partners.
