Lafarge Canada, a member of Holcim Group, has completed the initial phase of its ECOCycle Technology pilot project, which integrates concrete demolition materials in manufacturing new cement.
The company’s St. Constant cement plant near Montreal has integrated around 10,000 tons of old concrete and building demolition materials into manufacturing new cement in the past year. The cement created meets the same performance standards as traditional concrete and is now used in construction projects in the greater Montreal area.
“By reusing construction and demolition wastes in the production of new building materials, we are reducing waste sent to landfill,” said David Redfern, president and CEO of Lafarge Canada East. “Across Lafarge Canada we’re evaluating any opportunity to decarbonize our operations and circularity is part of this effort. This pilot is critical to demonstrate that we can effectively repurpose concrete waste which goes a long way to conserve our naturally occurring resources and loops in construction sustainability -- building new from old.”
Around 10 million tons of construction and demolition waste is generated in Canada each year, and 4 million tons of this total is concrete waste. Reusing wasted concrete both keeps the material from landfills and serves as a raw material for new projects.
The construction industry faces a number of obstacles to decarbonization, including the carbon-intensity involved in producing one of its main building materials: cement. Cement is the most globally consumed product next to water and is responsible for 8% of the world’s overall emissions.
Innovations have been made in creating a less carbon-intensive process for making cement, such as solar-powered cement production and cement-free concrete that is able to absorb carbon from the air. Lafarge’s efforts toward concrete circularity mark yet another way to decarbonize the industry. As the sector struggles to meet net-zero targets, additional support for proven emissions-reducing innovations is a necessary step towards meeting Paris Agreement goals.
“We are advancing our goal of creating a circular ecosystem for construction materials as well as offering a material impact on our CO2 footprint through utilizing these lower embodied carbon materials as raw materials,” said Andrew Stewart, vice president of Cement at Lafarge Canada East.
