Guardians of the environment
Composed of the Groupe Séché Environnement (Dried Up Environment Group) one of the leading French stockists and handlers of waste (1580 people, for an annual turnover in 2005 of 337 million Euros), the Tredi Centre in Saint-Vulbas is specialised in the elimination of organically halogenic waste and one of the few in the world to master the art of decontaminating soiled PCB apparatus.
Consequence of economic development and advancement of ways of consumption:
The volume of waste generated by human activity does not stop rising. Apart from agriculture and forestry, France alone produces some 251.6 million tons of waste every year (source: Ademe-Ifen). From this total, 106 million tonnes are generated by firms, 31.4 million tonnes by households and 14 million tonnes by collective ownership (plus 100 million tonnes by mines, quarries and building sites on buildings of public work and 0.2 million tonnes by care activities): a rich vein for Séché Environnement who in a few years have imposed themselves as one of the main players in waste treatment.
Founded in 1981, the company from the Mayenne region is above all committed to the stocking of waste, a field governed by strict security criteria. In 1996 its efforts were rewarded when it obtained the first ISO 14001 environmental certification in the world for its field. It then grew in order to control its historic stream of activity. The acquisitions of Alcor in 2001 and of Tredi, concluded in July 2002, allowed Séché Environnement to complete its range of treatment tools and to strengthen its offer to industrial clientele.
Today, on all national territory, Séché Environnement has a complete and diversified industrial tool which allows it to enable stages of treatment for all types of waste (apart from radioactive waste) from upstream logistics up to the latest storage, by-passing the enhanced value of the material, energetic enhancement or rehabilitation of the site.
Trédi Saint-Vulbas: Almost 40,000 tonnes of waste treated each year.
With the Trédi factory already set up at Plaine de l'Ain, the group has high-tech equipment, specialised in the treatment of organically halogenic waste and notably of PCB (Polychlorobiphenyl) and solids soiling the PCB. Relying on a team of 140 people managed by Philippe Escobar, the firm treats almost 40,000 tonnes of waste each year.
Trédi Saint-Vulbas has two incineration lines a rotating oven with an annual capacity of 24,000 tonnes and a static oven with a capacity of 6000 tonnes per year, as well as nine decontamination units for the equipment soiled by the PCB. Otherwise, the site is fitted with a sophisticated device for smoke treatment before discharge controlled by the atmosphere, as well as systems for water neutralisation. Everything that comes in and goes out of the factory is rigorously checked assures Claudine Lacôte, head of communication at the firm. The legislation covering our activity is already very restrictive but in certain domains such as health care, we have imposed superior measures to those allowed in the regulations.
With this spirit of rigour and transparency, the management of Trédi Saint-Vulbas has associated itself with the information campaign on industrial risks recently committed to by certain firms in Plaine de l'Ain, aimed at the riverside population.
