Find out more about waste recovery by Accelerated Fossilization

To reduce waste, it’s essential to multiply strategies.

Firstly, improving product design and production processes can minimize packaging and waste. Secondly, looking for ways to reuse waste in the production process is crucial. Collaboration with other companies can also be beneficial, as waste from one company can serve as raw material for another. Finally, investing in clean technologies and encouraging research and development.

To ensure the success of these initiatives, awareness-raising and training in waste reduction is fundamental.

Recycling involves reintroducing used materials into the production cycle to manufacture new products. Waste is collected, sorted, cleaned and transformed into raw materials.

Material recovery is a process by which waste is transformed into a new raw material. This process helps to reduce the volume of waste, preserve natural resources and thus reduce our ecological footprint.

Néolithe processes non-recyclable, non-hazardous and non-inert waste.

Today, this mainly consists of sorting refusals from business waste from the construction, industrial and tertiary sectors, as well as bulky waste and all waste from waste collection centers. Residual household waste is currently under study.

Accelerated Fossilization is a cold mechanical and chemical process. The main stages are as follows :

Recycling : shredding and oversorting

This stage involves shredding the waste, which is then sorted and the remaining recyclable materials, such as ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals, plastics…, are recovered and sent for recycling.

Material recovery : mixing and shaping

What we call Fossilizate, i.e. waste shred, is mixed with a formulated hydraulic binder made from mineral bases sourced in Europe by Néolithe, then shaped to create a new building material. Once this reaction is complete, and after a period of ageing, we obtain aggregates ready for use in the construction industry.

Néolithe reduces the climatic impact of final waste treatment by :

1. Avoiding CO2eq emissions compared with the current solutions, landfill and incineration,

2. Sequestering the biogenic carbon present in the waste.

Today, Anthropocite aggregates can be used to replace 20% of natural aggregates in the manufacture of non-structural concrete. This type of concrete is mainly used for applications that do not require high mechanical resistance.

Néolithe is working with the CSTB (Scientific and Technical Center for Building) on new ETPMs (Technical Evaluation of Products and Materials) and Experimental Technical Assessments (ATEx – Appréciation Technique d’Expérimentation), notably for new uses : industrial slab concretes, individual slab concretes, foundation concretes, beams and slabs.

Anthropocite aggregate is the result of an Accelerated Fossilization process for mixed non-recyclable waste. It is a new construction material used in concrete formulations. Although these formulations may vary according to their use, a common composition for concrete includes cement, aggregates (gravel), sand and water.

In France, quarried natural aggregates are among the most widely consumed raw materials every year.

At the end of its life, concrete including our Anthropocite aggregates can be recycled : in a new formulation incorporating up to 20% recycled aggregates, for use as a road base or in landfill.

Néolithe offers multi-year contracts with payment by the ton of waste treated, and distributes its Anthropocite aggregates for concrete preparation via its network of partners.

Néolithe has two pilot lines dedicated to R&D near Angers (France, 49) and is preparing to install its first large-capacity plant.

Néolithe is not an eco-organization in the sense of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). Eco-organizations are entities approved by the State to organize and finance the management of waste from a certain category of products, in accordance with EPR obligations. These organizations collect financial contributions from producers and use these funds to manage the collection, sorting, recycling and disposal of the waste concerned.

Néolithe is a privately-owned company developing an innovative technology for transforming mixed business waste into construction aggregates. It does not have the role of an approved eco-organization in a specific EPR sector.