Limiting waste < Commitments & case studies < Sustainable Development: Lafarge

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Environment

Limiting waste

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Lafarge takes a two-pronged approach to limiting waste: it recycles production waste and reduces construction waste.

Recycling production waste

Year after year, the Group increases the proportion of production waste it recycles. Products suitable for recycling include substandard plasterboard and cement with kilning defects.

Plants reuse such products as:

alternative raw materials,
or alternative fuel.

The Cement Business has created a "Resource Recovery" team dedicated to industrial ecology.

Cement Business and industrial ecology

Reducing construction waste

To accomplish this, Lafarge:

designs materials which "save" on raw materials, such as Ductal®. The manufacturing process for Ductal® consumes fewer natural resources (and less energy) than conventional concretes,
promotes the recovery of waste on construction sites.

Lafarge is committed to reducing the amount of construction waste sent to landfills.

We generate a consistent but low level of waste. In 2009, only 0.7% of cement produced and 0.9% of gypsum was sent to landfills.

Recycling

Saving building materials
In France, the recycling platform near Pontreaux has been able to spare up to 80 kt/year of virgin aggregates
from nearby quarries.
In Korea, Lafarge recycled 100% of production waste and 55% of waste generated during construction, which represents 4% of the total raw gypsum consumed in its 3 plants.

Last update on 06/23/2010

Environmental challenges

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Lafarge takes a strong partnership approach, notably with the WWF, to protect biodiversity.

Lafarge and biodiversity

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