French Neo-Eco is working on a pilot residential renovation project in Hostomel (Kyiv region) with a total budget of EUR 45 million, which will provide new housing for 310 families and show the benefits of recycling construction waste into new materials, Neo-Eco Vice President Bart Gruyaert in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"For Neo-Eco, this will be a pilot project in Ukraine. In Hostomel on Proskurivska Street, thanks to the French government and other donors, we plan to restore six residential buildings with 310 apartments, a school for 1,000 students and a kindergarten," Gruyaert said.

According to him, materials from destroyed facilities near the Hostomel airport will be used for construction to restore buildings and roads near them. Reuse of construction waste will optimize the restoration budget of Ukraine by about 20-25%, the expert said.

He said that the project will be implemented using funds provided by the French government. Its total budget is about EUR 45 million, including the demolition and construction of new housing. French architects from the BLAU company are working on the development of the project.

Samples of materials have already been taken from several points of buildings, now they are being examined in laboratories in France and Ukraine.

"We send about 200 kg of samples to France. They are examined as carefully as possible for the presence of contaminants and the possibility of their reuse (or, in particular, their parts) for housing construction. There are two stages of research: the first is an analysis in terms of the safety of reuse, the second – development of recipes so that the concrete to be produced meets the requirements for quality, strength, thermal conductivity, etc.," Gruyaert said.

He added that over the 17 years of Neo-Eco's operation, about 10 million tonnes of concrete used in large French projects have already been recycled, and during all this time there have been no problems with its operation.

"Typically, we produce three types of concrete: structural, insulating-structural and lightweight. Structural concrete is the most difficult to manufacture. Here we have to be very careful, because its operation is always risky. It is easier to get the other two types," Gruyaert said.

The testing procedure itself takes about six weeks, and the results are now being received from France and local laboratories. "If we are satisfied with the quality of the Ukrainian laboratory, we will switch to it. This will be right both in terms of logistics and prices, and most importantly, we want to give more work to specialists in Ukraine," he added.

As for the enterprises that will use the dismantled materials as raw materials, a closed tender is currently underway.

"We have three requirements for such a partner company: having the necessary own equipment; having full-time personnel with appropriate experience, special education and skills (some types of work are dangerous) and following our dismantling methodology," Gruyaert said.

As for materials for future buildings, in addition to recycling and using materials from demolished buildings, Neo-Eco wants to show another technology in the pilot project, using plant materials, wood and straw.

According to the concept, the load-bearing structures will be made of concrete, and the wall panels will be made of panels containing wood and compressed straw.

At the same time, Gruyaert said that Ukraine is much more open to changes than most countries of the European Union.

"I think this is one of the biggest values and qualities that I see in Ukraine and people. For example, we created a committee of 15 people who lost their apartments where we are going to restore their destroyed houses. So we had expected that these people will react like in France, where they said: "Straw, wooden panels are too unreliable, they burn quickly." And the Ukrainians asked to tell them about the benefits. We explained and heard in response: "Don't worry, we will implement it together with you." This is a very strong motivation for us," he said.

Neo-Eco is a French company that has been operating on the principle of a circular economy for 17 years.