« We must promote the re-use of inert soil excavated from construction sites »: An article in News Tank: Cities

Interview with Laurent Mogno of ECT: « We must promote the re-use of inert soil excavated from construction sites ».  AUA – Paris – friday 17 May 2019 – interview number 146743 [« We must promote the re-use of inert soil excavated from construction sites: An article in News Tank: Cities. Upcycling this material from construction sites is a socially and environmentally useful activity. It’s not recycling. The objectives of re-using soil vary depending on the sites and the local challenges or issues in the region. In terms of landscape developments, there is immense scope. Our goal is to develop a circular economy of excavated soil to create useful developments that are part of a local dynamic », said Laurent Mogno, chairman of the ECT group, on 07/05/2019. The ECT company processes between 12 and 15 million tons of excavated material every year (Parisian made-ground, clay, marl, sand and silt, rubble, ceramics, brick, rock, concrete, etc). 85% are inert soils, and the remaining 15% are made up of sulfate soils (spoil from gypsum quarries) and soil polluted with hydrocarbons that is processed at the ECT centre for biological treatment of soil at La Courneuve (Seine-Saint-Denis). According to the Société du Grand Paris, which is in charge of the Grand Paris Express (GPE) construction sites, the soil from the 15 tunnel-boring machines that are operating represents half the soil extraction. « ECT’s part of the market for managing and re-using soil from construction sites is in the order of 50% », says Laurent Mogno. « The Île-de-France is the most dynamic region in France, where the most soil is being excavated ». The GPE construction sites produced 5 million tons of excavated spoil in 2017 and 2018, with a prospect of 43 million tons by 2030 (consisting partly of soil extracted by the tunnel-boring machines).] Read the complete article