Activities

Soil Recycling Centre

The most advanced soil recycling centre in Europe is operated by DEC in the harbour of Antwerp in Belgium. This centre has a capacity of 400,000 tons per year. This SRC makes part of the extensive DEC-Ecoterres programme to offer ex-situ treatment solutions for highly contaminated soils.

Four different techniques are applied :

• Bioremediation
  This technique accelerates the natural breakdown processes of pollutants. This treatment is suitable for all types of soil (from sand to clay) that have become contaminated with organic pollutants.
• Physico-chemical soil washing
  This is a “wet” extraction process (pre-treatment, decontamination of sand, washing of the coarser fraction, treatment of the process water and of the sludge fraction), whereby the contaminants are remediated and the soil is recycled into the ground or used as construction material. This soil washing technique is especially suitable for sandy soils that are contaminated with heavy metals, cyanides and hydrocarbons.
• Immobilisation
  Pollutants are immobilised trhough the introduction of additives that reduce leaching. Immobilisation is applied for soils that are heavily contaminated with inorganic substances.
• Thermal desorption
  The center additionally has a permit for thermal desorpion, a technique used for the remediation of soil contaminated with organic pollutants (PAH, mineral oil, etc.)

The Belgian home market represents the cradle of the Group’s environmental care activities. Beyond the existing silt and soil recycling centres at Kallo and Ruisbroek, DEC started operations at a new sediment and soil recycling centre at Zeebrugge in February 2006. A first soil recycling facility has been set up recently in the UK.

We invite you to learn more about GRC Kallo activities by exploring our website.

GRC Grond Recyclage Centrum

Contact GRC Kallo