Charleval town health centre : raw earth construction by recycling excavated soil

By project INERTWASTE

Published on 29 April 2025

France

Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur

About this good practice

The project concerns the construction of a health centre (750 m²) in the heart of the village of Charleval, using rammed earth from the site (pisé).
As part of its consultation process, the municipality selected the project management, which proposed a solution involving the recycling site soil into building materials. This proposal combines the village's building tradition with a circular economy approach, greatly limiting the disposal of excavated soil in landfill sites and the use of natural resources (aggregates, sand).
A virtuous, low-carbon and economically viable approach, since waste disposal and concrete transport weigh heavily on the financial balance sheet of construction projects.
Of the 672 tonnes of earth excavated for the project's foundations:
-60 t of topsoil were reused in the municipality's landscaping. (10%)
-40 t disposed of as landfill (5%)
-572 t recycled into building materials (85%): 435 t for the walls and 137 t of concrete for the foundations, base and backfill.
This represents 73% of the structural materials produced from the reuse of 85% of the excavated earth (without a basement). If the project had included an additional basement 0.46 m deep, we would have been able to produce 100% of the structural materials.
The main stakeholders were the town of Charleval (owner) and the project management team: COMBAS architectural firm /FILIATER company specialising in recycling and producing geosourced materials /KP2 construction company.

Resources needed

Skills: waste management, building and public works engineering and project management, ability to coordinate and raise awareness among stakeholders, knowledge of public procurement procedures.

Evidence of success

-Waste recycling demonstration project:
85% of the 672 tonnes of excavated soil reused on site
Savings of 35 semi-trailers of transport, 400 tonnes of aggregates, 160 tonnes of sand and 45 tonnes of steel.
- Proof of concept of the technical capabilities of raw earth construction, in high seismic zone (4), without metal reinforcement
- Viable economic model: savings on landfill disposal and steel integration make the site's raw earth construction competitive

Potential for learning or transfer

The innovative public procurement with circular economy criteria used in this project could be transferred to other regions. This approach may make it possible to adapt the consultation to the opportunity to recycle excavated soil recycling process:
- Contact the producer of geosourced materials upstream of the project to establish an initial feasibility study, including an analysis of the site's resources, in parallel with the geotechnical studies.
- Enabling coordination between
• The project management team and the producer of geosourced materials from the design phase, to ensure that all the necessary engineering skills are available for the project.
• The structural work teams (earthworks and construction) and the producer of geosourced materials to ensure that the recycling/production process runs smoothly.