Colas RA

60
Business report – Colas Group
RECYCLING
In light of the fact that the Group is one of the leading manufacturers
and users of construction materials, recycling is another fundamental
line of Colas’ action in favor of sustainable development.
There are four methods to recycle and reuse waste in road techniques.
The first of these consists in adding waste to “secondary raw materials”
to offer new properties to the roadway: this is a “win-win” situation
for producers of waste and coproducts as well as for the user
market. Colas has longstanding experience and know-how in this
field with, for example, Colsoft, a noise-reducing asphalt mix that contains
fine rubber powder from used tires, Scintiflex, an eye-pleasing
surfacing product that contains mirror-glass waste, the Fractal Wall, a
noise barrier that contains waste wood, and more. In 2005, a new
product called Compogom was developed for road base courses
using crushed tires.
The second involves the recovering of wastes from the road industry
and the construction industry as a whole. The first Group recycling platforms
in France were launched in 1975 by Les Docks d’Orly and in
1988 with Sarm in Strasbourg. Colas then began a more widespread
implantation of recycling units equipped to treat a variety of materials,
such as dirt debris with the Ecosol process which transformed
250,000 tons of ordinary materials into standard-compliant gravel in
the Paris area alone in 2005, the reuse of mastic asphalt from sidewalks
(25% in standard-compliant mastic asphalt for the City of Paris),
crushing of demolition concrete debris in 18 Colas sites in France,
in-place recycling of bituminous road surfacing (300,000 m 2 treated
by Colas Sud-Ouest in 2005 alone), and the addition of recycled
asphalt pavement, or RAP, into new asphalt mixes. This list illustrates the
highly-recyclable nature of road materials.
Recycled asphalt pavement –
the French-American contrast
In the USA, using recycled asphalt pavement – or RAP – is a
commonplace technique, widely accepted by decision-makers
who increasingly call for this type of technique in their bids. The
figures from the Group’s American subsidiaries speak for themselves:
13.5% of RAP out of a total production of nearly 18 million
tons of asphalt mix, i.e., the output of 18 asphalt mixing plants.
In Europe, especially in France, recycling is still only used on a
very small number of projects, 5% of the Group’s total production,
due to decision-makers’ resistance to change. Colas Nord-Picardie
invested in a high-capacity mobile asphalt plant that is able to
use up to 50% of RAP.
Colas Centre-Ouest – an award-winning
Environment policy
This subsidiary won an award for an experimental site on Route
28 involving “the reuse of excess materials and waste on a
construction project”, under the patronage of the French Ministry
of Ecology and Sustainable Development, the Ministry of
Equipment and Transports, and the Ademe.
The third consists in substituting products with equivalent quality
and costs, a process which calls for a neutral, well-balanced relationship
between the waste generator and the waste user: construction
rubble includes concrete that can be crushed; fines from thermal
power stations are often used to manufacture asphalt mix; Screg Est
treated 250,000 tons of slag in Lorraine in 2005. When reusing
this type of waste, the Group must, however, take into account inherent
uncertainties. Colas was thus obliged to close down its Granufos
slag transformation unit near Marseille along with Écoballast, the ballast
recycling business at Seco-Rail.
The fourth involves the government policies which, acting on behalf
of public interest, impose the use of sub-normal materials with
mediocre technical characteristics, including bottom ash from household
waste incineration plants and molding sand. These materials
are used only if specifically required by special technical specifications
or if they are part of a subsidized project. Colas handles, for
example, more than 40% of the bottom ash produced in the Greater
Lyon area. The Group also reused 100,000 tons of molding sand
in Nord-Picardie in 2005. Colas keeps a watchful eye on this type
of reuse to make sure that there is no impact on the structures’ quality
or durability.
In all, reuse and recycling represent more than 5 million tons of materials
in France, i.e., nearly 15% of the Group’s aggregate production
in France which is equal to the total production of 12 quarries.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION:
ACTIVITIES AND PROJECTS
In 2005, throughout the Group’s subsidiaries, business in the field
of environmental protection continued to develop, via Cosson with
an ordinary waste unit near Paris, Picheta for construction debris
from small craftsmen combined with soil clean-up projects and Colas
Environnement et Recyclage’s agency Pollution Service. This business
activity makes it possible to better apprehend environmental
issues, to help implement ISO 14001 certification and contributes to
the training of environment-specialized teams in the Group.
Several projects involving environmental issues were completed in
2005:
– application of 160,000 m 2 of Coletanche for a watertight storage
facility belonging to Borax near Dunkerque (Colas Nord-Picardie);
– development of a Greenflex process designed to allow for the
sowing of grass seeds on landscaped parking lots;