Actions to increase the supply of recycled materials and processing facilities
Expanding the production of recycled materials
Double the production of recycled materials at VINCI Construction (in millions of tonnes)
To limit the use of natural resources, more recycled materials must be available. VINCI companies work to increase the share of recycled materials used in their construction processes. VINCI Construction has set several ambitious targets for 2030. It will double the production of recycled materials at quarries and processing facilities compared with 2019. By 2030, its Road France Division aims to produce 25% of its asphalt mix using reclaimed asphalt pavement and have 80% of quarries and recycling facilities labelled Granulat+, meaning that they support the circular economy.
As a market leader in construction and industrial waste recovery, VINCI Construction’s Road France Division is continuing the rollout throughout France of its Granulat+ programme applying circular economy principles to construction materials. This programme features the largest network of sites for treating mineral waste from the construction and manufacturing industries in the country, with 165 quarries and processing facilities equipped with dedicated waste collection, sorting and recycling capabilities in 2024. The recycled materials thus become certified, quality aggregates. Each Granulat+ site sorts all the waste collected, optimises recycling and recovery, and guarantees traceability of the waste treated. The programme aims to improve the treatment of recycled materials so that they can be used for more noble purposes. For example, excavation material from construction sites, which used to be considered final waste, can now be fully recovered. Granulat+ sites are spread throughout France, forming a dense network that favours short circuits and optimised packaging that rationalises consumption (big bags for urban or small-scale worksites). Progress in recycling techniques should eventually pave the way towards “perpetual quarries”, which would operate without virgin mineral deposits.
In 2023, VINCI Construction launched Ogêo, a new brand offering aggregates formulated throughout France. Made up of both primary resources (quarry aggregates) and secondary resources (local materials from demolition and recycling), Ogêo is a range of highly technical materials from eight responsible collection channels. As part of Granulat+, this offering favours short circuits and confirms the division’s commitment to optimising resources by using materials produced locally, as close as possible to worksites. VINCI continues to invest in this solution, as part of the Scale Up! programme, which supports the rollout of Environment Award initiatives (see the paragraph describing the programme). Outside France, new production facilities, including those in Lithuania, Spain and Canada, enable VINCI Construction to gain a lead in the commercialisation of recycled materials and to make a commitment to its customers in this strategic path.
VINCI Construction is continuously developing innovative solutions to offer its customers new recycled materials. Since 2015, its Road France Division has been using a solution that recovers up to 100% of materials from old road surfaces and uses them to build new roads. A 100% recycled asphalt mix is not aligned with the business line’s strategy, due to the significant carbon footprint of the final product. However, asphalt mix with up to 80% recycled material offers a more sustainable and relevant solution. Based on that strategy, VINCI Construction opened a TRX80 asphalt plant in Fos-sur-Mer in the summer of 2023. The fixed facility can incorporate up to 80% of reclaimed asphalt pavement into its production, marking a major step forward in this technology. As a comparison, in France bitumen asphalt contains about 20% recycled material on average. In 2024, its first full year of operation, the plant produced 112,000 tonnes of asphalt mix, which incorporates an average of 46% reclaimed asphalt pavement.
VINCI’s 2024 Environment Day also provided the opportunity to launch the Extract platform in Bruyères-sur-Oise (Civil Engineering France Division) to increase and improve the treatment capacity of contaminated soil received for remediation.
Creating new recycling value chains
VINCI Airports implements a strategy for responsible waste management that goes further than local regulations, using the experience it has gained in regions without a formal waste processing and recovery sector. Salvador Bahia airport in Brazil and Belgrade airport in Serbia as well as the airports in Faro (Portugal), Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and Manaus (Brazil) have already installed their own sorting centres. This new process prevents waste from the terminal, offices, cargo activities and dining areas from systematically going to landfill. Once waste has been sorted, it is easier to avoid landfills and find interested recycling and recovery organisations. A partner company recycles any waste that can be recycled, while the rest is sent for incineration. As a result, recycling rates in 2024 were 24% at Manaus and 34% at Salvador Bahia compared with an average recycling rate of 3% in Brazil. At Faro, the recycling rate rose from 25% in 2021 to more than 40% in 2024.
Inclusive recycling projects have been launched at Phnom Penh airport (Cambodia) and at Manaus airport (Brazil). The objectives of inclusive recycling are both social and environmental. Projects of this kind can improve waste recovery in regions where industrial solutions are not available. At the same time, they create decent and sustainable jobs in the informal sector, among the existing communities of waste pickers. Based on the results of these pilot projects, VINCI Concessions will assess the feasibility of expanding the initiative and implementing inclusive recycling in other regions without formal recycling systems.