ECOCIR: RAILWAY BALLAST REUSE

Client: SNCF Réseau (State railway works company)

Scientific partner: Neo-Eco

Location: Miramas, Greater Marseille periphery

Delivered in: November 2023

 

Managed by SNCF Réseau, the Miramas reusing platform screens railway ballast, to be reused on tracks or as aggregates. ECOCIR built on this competence to process railway sleepers and deconstruction waste, industrialising processes and developing a profitable aggregates production venture.

 

New machinery and processes (crushing, washing, finer screening) increase value addition and enrich the product list, comprising 16 aggregate types varying in sizes, materials*, and a washing option. ECOCIR was executed in the context of the newly adopted ‘REP PMCB’ legislation**, that profoundly changed construction and materials value chains.

 

Inecko established the venture production costs, revenue and profitability, built momentum around the project, evidenced economic outcomes which secured wide local support.

 

Specifically, we have:

 

• Established and modelled production costs, revenue and profitability, for 3 input materials and 16 recycled end products – 90,000 t annual capacity, EUR 1.5M turnover, 25% EBITDA margin

• Provided operational and strategic recommendations after interviewing and involving local/regional businesses (concrete producers, quarries, architects) and stakeholders (national environmental expertise agency, professional organisations, clusters, think tank, consultancy), including risk analysis

• Quantified and interpreted socio-economic outcomes (direct, indirect – jobs, wages, revenue, value added, tax), derived local perspectives e.g. contribution to industrial employment or value addition

• Assessed long-term regional development impacts (innovation capacities, skills, ecosystems) and advised on their enhancement

• Collected quantitative and qualitative primary data*** via 10 hours of interviews with 17 respondents, follow-up outreach, and 1 focus group

 

* Rock, concrete.

** ‘Extended producer responsibility for building and construction materials’.

*** Collected for the first time. 

 

 

And now? (as of Sept. 2026)

 

The State railway works company's Miramas platform prepares ballast for reuse and contributes to aggregates supply in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and Occitanie regions. Its diversification into the reuse of railway products, such as concrete sleepers, is under way.