EtNISI
Sustainable supply
FRANCE
Location: Lille, France
Sector: Manufacture – Transformation, End of life
Date of creation: 2017
Analysis by the association: March 2018
Using waste from the deconstruction and agri-food sectors to produce a wide range of objects.
Overview
EtNISI is a company created in 2017 by Espérance Fenzy and which counts four people in 2018. Espérance Fenzy worked in the construction industry for 10 years. During his career, he became aware of the huge amount of waste produced by the deconstruction sector in France: 71 million tons of inert waste are not revalued or reused.
Aware of this, he left his work to spend one year searching for a process to recycle these industrial waste. It develops a process to manufacture any object, composed of at least 75% recycled materials: tables, chairs, tiles … This from all types of materials, whether from the construction sector as well as agribusiness. This new product is named “Wasterial ©”.
- France produces 227.5 million tonnes of waste per year (of which 80% from the public works sector)
- 2014: 61% of inert waste redirected to other worksites or recovery structures (71 million tonnes of waste not reused or recovered)
- 75%: minimum proportion of recycled materials in the objects produced at EtNISI
- Most manufactured product by the company: tiles 60x60cm
- Production capacity of the EtNISI plant = 1.2 tons of recovery material per day (i.e. 1000m2 of tiles/day)
- 4 t of mussel shells recovered at the Braderie de Lille, transformed into tiles
- Sustainable supply
EtNISI procures sustainably using resources that have already been produced and used, the company uses very few other resources to produce these objects.
- Eco-design
The company has developed a process that makes it possible to manufacture products with at least 75% recycled material for any material used: “Wasterial©”. It thus minimizes the impact that the product could have during its design: the objects produced do not require the extraction of new resources, the process makes it possible to retransform already existing materials into new goods.
- Industrial and territorial ecology
The diversity of materials recovered by EtNISI (concrete, blue stone, red brick, coffee grounds, hops, mussel shells…) allows the organisation of a waste recovery network that affects different sectors such as public works and construction, restoration and municipalities. These different actors are therefore mobilized to limit their waste production and thus offer them a second life before selling them locally to individuals and companies.
- End of life / Recycling
The raw materials recovered by EtNISI are materials often produced in large quantities and not necessarily easy to recycle. Thanks to the process developed by the company, these materials are then reused and re-processed to produce new objects which in turn will be subjected to the same process to produce new objects and so on. A recycling loop is thus created from materials initially destined for the trash when they reach the end of their life: their lifespan is thus greatly extended while avoiding the waste of precious raw materials.
Project operation
EtNISI has developed a process to make any object composed of at least 75% recycled material, the “Wasterial ©”. The peculiarity of the process is that it is the same regardless of the material used. Thus, EtNISI develops solutions from concrete, blue stone, red brick, but also from elements such as coffee grounds, hops or mussel shells.
In partnership with Lille City Hall and Esterra, the company has recovered the 3 piles of mold shells produced during the Braderie (about 4 tons) and is in the process of developing a material from them.
Circularity is the main focus of EtNISI
The final product is therefore composed only of recycled material and organic binder. In addition, the Wasterial itself is reusable. The characteristics of products reused for the manufacture of objects are responsible for the physical properties of the final product: thus, the proportions of binder and material are particular to each type of product according to the use. Another value of the company is proximity: EtNISI recovers local materials to transform them nearby and sell them to businesses or individuals in the city. To follow this principle, the company’s model is the creation of 250m2 micro-factories present throughout France.
Sustainable approach
Currently, non-upgraded building materials are buried. The initiative of EtNISI gives them a new life and thus limit the extraction of new resources for their production: as said before, this amounts to 1.2 tonnes of material per day but is destined to grow in the upcoming years.
Before the products are marketed, environmental tests are carried out because they are recycled materials. This is the only limit to the use of certain basic materials. For example, it is impossible to use bulbs because they do not pass the leaching test.
Lastly, the creation of local factories close to the metropolises makes it possible to limit at the most the costs and pollution related to transport.
The disposal of inert waste from the construction industry costs around € 7 / ton. Household waste, especially that derived from the food industry, is more expensive: the treatment costs of one ton of waste incinerated amounts to about € 80 before tax (figure established in 2006). Thus, recycle these large-scale materials provide significant savings, from an environmental as well as economic point of view, for society as a whole.
Each recycled material has its own story: by recycling them in new uses, EtNISI also seeks to create a link between their past and future use. An example of value is the use of hops to create the future tiling of a brewery, or to reuse blue stone, a traditional material for northern France homes, to include in interiors.
Replicability & future perspectives
The process is very standardized. The R & D phases are necessary for each new material to be tested, but EtNISI has proved that the possibilities are almost endless. The Wasterial © is located in the high-end market prices: 45 € per meter of tile made from blue stone, which represents a classic price for quality material. The company also establishes partnerships with large companies. This solution, in addition to bringing environmental benefits, is therefore economically viable.
In addition to the micro-factory built in Roubaix, three other projects are underway in the rest of France.
Finally, the company is in the process of experimenting with recycled binders which are very promising, which would make it possible to obtain 100% recycled solution!
Inert waste is waste that does not decompose, burn or produce any physical or chemical reaction. This type of waste represents 80% of of construction waste.