Construction and demolition waste

The construction sector is responsible for about a quarter of the Dutch waste mountain. Annually, Van Gansewinkel Groep collects approximately 400,000 tonnes of construction and demolition waste every year. We turn this into raw materials for different end users. Rubble, for example, is turned into the base resource needed for road construction and non-residential buildings.

A large number of Van Gansewinkel Groep locations have separation plants, where construction and demolition waste is separated into different streams.  This is achieved in a variety of ways. Amongst other things we use compressed air, screening mechanisms, crushers, vibration techniques and water tanks. The largest stream is rubble; part of this goes to external rubble crushers, the rest we grind down into granules and, eventually, it returns to the construction industry as base material, like the sand that we extracted from the construction and demolition waste. The metal returns directly to the metal industry, where it is almost entirely reused.

The wood is removed in three streams. The clean, raw A-rated timber is re-used by the timber and chipboard industry. The filtered B-rated wood (painted / chipboard etc.) and C-rated wood (including sleepers) are mostly used to fuel incinerators and generate energy.

Paper and plastic are the smaller streams we take out of construction and demolition waste. The paper goes back to the paper industry and plastics are recycled. What’s left is a combustible fluff. This serves as fuel for incinerators to then generate energy. Even after the incineration process a useful raw material is left: bottom ashes.
This material also serves as foundation material.