An old shoe turned into a stone and cast in concrete. With its innovative “accelerated fossilization” process, Neolithe transforms non-recyclable, non-inert and non-hazardous waste into mineral aggregates that can be used in the construction sector. While around 30 million tonnes of waste are buried or incinerated each year, the Angers start-up aims to “turn it into stone”.
“There you have a plastic tarp, a shoe, pieces of wood, cardboard…”, enumerates Nicolas Cruaud, picking up rubbish from the huge pile of waste stored in the Neolithe hangar, in Chalonnes-sur-Loire. “They can no longer be recycled, either because they are too small, or because they are too dirty or too mixed to be able to extract pure materials from them”, explains the president and co-founder of the company. The waste is first ground into a very fine powder which is then mixed with a binder whose recipe remains secret. The paste thus obtained passes through a press and comes out in the form of triangular aggregates. “Once processed, they are used in the construction sector in the same way as quarry aggregates. So to make roads, concrete…”, develops the Angevin.
Launched in 2019, Neolith now has 160 employees. In March, the start-up will plug its fossilizer into a sorting center for the first time. It aims to install five to ten additional ones in 2023. “We calculated that if we could treat all non-recyclable waste, buried or incinerated, we could reduce French CO2 emissions by around 7%, all industries combined” , believes the young engineer of 28 years.