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We operate in more than 15 countries, close to the needs of our customers.

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industrial sites in France

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  3. Circular economy

Ramping up the expansion of the circular economy

For nearly 40 years, we have been pioneering the circular economy. In response to the need to move toward a more low-carbon model, we are constantly developing new waste and energy recovery solutions that meet the needs of businesses and local authorities in France and around the world.
Bales of paper and cardboard ready for recycling. Séché Environnement.

From waste to low-carbon resources

As natural resources become increasingly scarce, we have a responsibility to rapidly expand the circular economy.

Our business model, which has long been ahead of the curve, became even more meaningful with the adoption of the “Anti-waste and circular economy” law in France in 2020.  

Moving from a conventional linear model – extraction, production, consumption, disposal – to a circular model helps relieve pressure on resources and ecosystems, and respond to the climate emergency.

 

Leveraging our R&D capabilities to achieve industrial ecology

We focus our R&D efforts on developing a wide range of solutions to preserve resources and reduce the volume of non-recoverable waste. As such, we developed 32 new products/processes in 2023.

  • Our leitmotif: transform as much waste as possible into all kinds of new, locally produced resources, creating either reusable material or energy and thereby encouraging relocalization and decarbonization.
  • Our strategy: focus all our efforts into innovative procedures and invest in cutting-edge technology. Our innovation strategy, which spans all areas of the circular and energy recovery from waste, was recognized with the Greentech & Energies award in 2021.

Multi-faceted performance

Alongside our client partners, we protect the planet’s resources. By harnessing the circular economy, together, we generate multi-faceted performance, which combines financial success with performance that benefits the environment, public health and the community in all the areas in which we operate.

Recovering recyclable materials

Regenerating chemicals

We regenerate exhausted solvents 
We apply innovative purification and distillation processes to produce recycled solvents that display the same characteristics as virgin solvents from fossil fuels. This enables us to preserve geostrategic resources, avoid destroying industrial waste and supply a locally produced product to the many industries that require these chemicals.

Learn more about our solutions to regenerate exhausted solvents

We regenerate bromine
Bromine is used in a variety of sectors, including the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and chemical industries. Our innovative technology enables us to extract nearly 99% of the bromine present in certain hazardous waste that first needs to be eliminated. Our regenerated bromine substitutes the need to extract bromine from the Dead Sea, which can be complex, costly and dangerous for the environment. Our alternative helps to relocalize the industry and cut our dependency on a distant geostrategic resource.

Rehabilitation: treating and reusing polluted land

Séché Environnement has developed specialist expertise in rehabilitating sites and treating polluted land. We can treat and rehabilitate land polluted by years of damaging activities, such as former industrial plants or landfill sites. After being treated in situ or at our specialist platforms, the affected soil can be reused as backfill by the construction industry. The circular economy can also enable towns and regions to reclaim their land assets and combat urban sprawl.

Take a look at the rehabilitation work at the site of the future Olympic Aquatic Center in Saint Denis

Reusing and recycling gas canisters

At our Trédi facility in Saint-Vulbas (eastern France), whose expertise in managing highly complex hazardous waste is renowned around the world, we developed a unique workshop to treat special gas and greenhouse gas. In this workshop, gas canisters are emptied, washed and then sent out to be reused if they are in good condition, or recycled if they are defective.

Video tour of the gas workshop in Trédi Saint-Vulbas

Household waste: we sort your recycling

In our sorting centers, waste from various recycling collections (paper, card, metal, plastic and wood) are separated by type, packed and then directed to the industrial channels able to reuse them.

Video: behind the scenes at one of our sorting centers

Bottom ash: recovering the waste from waste

Bottom ash is the solid residue produced by incinerating waste. When everything that can be burned has been burned, bottom ash is what remains. We remove the metals that can be recycled, and after several treatment processes, the remaining bottom ash is reused in the base course layer of new roads.

Waste-to-Energy

Waste still contains energy. For many years now, Séché Environnement has been developing facilities and processes to recover and provide low-carbon alternatives to fossil fuels. This is essential to preserve natural resources and thereby reduce the carbon footprint of manufacturing, farming, services and housing.

Solid Recovered Fuels (SRF)

SRFs are hailed as a new energy solution. We produce SRFs from non-recoverable waste that up until recently was considered as unusable in any way and could only be stored. As pioneers in this area, we built France’s first thermal power station in 2017 at our Changé facility (northwest France).

Watch this video to learn all about SRFs!

Waste heat

This is the energy we recover from waste incineration. A truly local energy source, waste heat can be harnessed and directed into urban heating network or industrial heating networks, like in Salaise-sur Sanne, near Lyon.

Biogas

It is produced naturally as organic waste decomposes. It can be injected directly into gas networks or used to generate electricity, heat or biomethane.

The circular economy in pictures

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France's first SRF thermal power station

Find out how Séché Environnement produces Solid Recovered Fuels and thereby supply hot water to a farming cooperative in summer, as well as the urban heating network of Laval in winter.
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Getting waste on the right track

Take a look behind the scenes at the Séché Environnement household waste sorting center in Changé (northwest France).
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The industrial heating network in Salaise-sur Sanne

At our Trédi de Salaise-sur-Sanne industrial facility (southwest France), we use elevated temperatures to treat the hazardous waste produced by nearby plants and in return supply them with the heat produced.
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A new plant to heat Montauban

In Montauban, southern France, we are building a new energy recovery unit that will power the local urban heating network.

Our commitment to the circular economy in figures

2023 data
WASTE RECOVERY
391,7 ktCO2e
 were not emitted by our clients through waste recovery, thereby cutting their carbon impact.
ENERGY RECOVERY
1,242 GWh
of recovered energy produced, 32% of which is considered renewable.
2022 Integrated Report : YOUR transition, OUR transition
  1. A global Group to accelerate the circular economy
  2. A Group committed to the climate
  3. An innovative partner for the ecological transition of the industry
  4. A Group historically committed to biodiversity
  5. A Group of women and men serving land and life

Download our latest integrated report

Circular economy news

What's new
The Group

Séché Environnement embarks on its project to build a new low-carbon industrial heating system in Plaine de l'Ain

Séché Environnement annonce le lancement d’un ambitieux projet de réseau de chaleur industrielle pour les entreprises du Parc Industriel de la Plaine de l’Ain, permettant de produire 160 000 MWh de vapeur par an et d’éviter l’émission de 14 000 tonnes d’équivalent CO2. Cette démarche s’inscrit dans la stratégie de décarbonation de Séché Environnement, portant aussi bien sur la réduction des émissions du Groupe que sur l’augmentation des émissions évitées pour ses clients.
More information
Development

PLAINÉNERGIE announces the launch of the 2nd phase of its partnership to transform waste from the Plaine de l'Ain into renewable or low-carbon gas.

The PLAINÉNERGIE partners have successfully completed the 1st phase of the program. CCPA, SMPIPA, GRTgaz, Séché Environnement and Enosis are now embarking on the 2nd phase. This involves coupling a pyrogasification and biological methanation process, on a semi-industrial scale, in order to validate the quality of the gas produced from solid waste from the Plaine de l'Ain region (end-of-life wood, bulky waste from waste collection centers, waste from economic activities, etc.) that is difficult to recover through conventional channels. The aim of this partnership is to confirm the interest of this waste treatment solution, leading to the local production of renewable, low-carbon gas. In this way, the PLAINÉNERGIE program is contributing to the challenges of energy transition and the circular economy in local areas.
More information
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