First cement with recycled construction and demolition material
Holcim exploits the possibilities of the new cement standard DIN EN 197-6 with ECOCycle technology
The scarcity of natural resources and climate change require architects and civil engineers to rethink the way they use building materials. One economically and ecologically sensible solution is to recycle building materials. Holcim is a pioneer in this field with its ECOCycle technology. This is because the circular economy is at the heart of the company‘s philosophy. Building materials should never become waste and the most important sources of raw materials in the future should no longer be exclusively sand and gravel pits and quarries, but existing buildings in cities.
To make this possible, Holcim relies on the ECOCycle platform for circular construction. This turns valuable demolition materials back into high-quality building materials. The technology has already been in use for some time in the aggregates sector. Holcim has now received application approval for the first cement with a proportion of high-quality recycled construction and demolition material from the German Institute for Building Technology (DIBt). The recycled content is up to 20%. This means that the R cement makes full use of the possibilities offered by the new cement standard DIN EN 197-6 and conserves natural resources such as limestone or chalk through recycling.
The performance of concretes produced with R-cement does not differ from conventional concretes made from primary raw materials. It is just as versatile as conventional cements, and can be used for ready-mixed concrete, precast concrete elements and other applications.
