World’s First Recycled Concrete Building in Gennevilliers, France
Holcim’s Innovation Center developed the world’s first fully recycled concrete project in which different components such as cement and aggregates are made of recycled materials. Holcim has partnered with Seqens, a social housing provider in France for building the Recygénie project. Built with this unique recycled concrete solution, the Recygénie project represents a breakthrough in circular construction. The Recygénie project is part of a renewal program launched by the City of Gennevilliers, located in the northwest suburbs of Paris. The project will offer new and diversified housing including both social and private housing as part of a redevelopment of the entire district. The building will be a 220-unit housing complex, including 70 social housing units, located outside Paris. Construction is currently underway, with completion expected in Q4 2024. This unique recycled concrete to be used in the project was produced using ECOCycle, Holcim’s proprietary circular technology platform to recycle construction and demolition waste (CDW) into new building solutions. Amid rising population growth and urbanization, circular solutions are essential for keeping materials in use to stay within our planet’s boundaries while we improve living standards for all. To build Recygénie, Holcim will use a concrete it has developed in which all components -cement, aggregates, and water – are made of recycled materials. The organization says its recycled cement has saved about 3,000 tons of natural resources that would have been extracted from quarries. Holcim’s concrete – made with recycled aggregates from construction and demolition waste, recycled wastewater, and rainwater — has saved more than 6,000 tons of natural resources. Edelio Bermejo, Head of Global R&D at Holcim, said, “We need to shift gears: from a linear “take-make-waste” economy to a circular one, to improve living standards for all, while staying within our planet’s limits. The development of the world’s first fully recycled concrete in this social housing project marks a major milestone for us, as we want to make circular construction accessible to all, as the norm and not the exception. I am proud to put this innovation to work in the Recygénie project, making sustainable housing accessible to all.” The Recygénie project builds on another world first: A 100% recycled clinker produced by Holcim in June 2022. This clinker was used to produce fully recycled cement for use in the custom concrete, saving approximately 3,000 tons of natural resources that would have been extracted from quarries. The concrete was made exclusively with aggregates from recycled CDW, and with recycled wastewater and rainwater. The fully recycled concrete developed for the Recygénie project contains the highest level of recycled material in Holcim’s range of circular solutions. Because French building standards limited the use of recycled material in new construction, Holcim engaged in a special monitoring program of the French national organization for R&D in the construction industry (CSTB) to make Recygénie with this first-of-its-kind concrete possible. As building standards evolve in Europe, Holcim is ready to deploy circular solutions at scale with ECOCycle.
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