Van de Beeten invests in waste recycling plant to accelerate sustainability target progress
Construction of new CDE wash plant underway as latest ICER sets out opportunities in the Netherlands...
Dutch family enterprise Van de Beeten, the agricultural contractor turned civil engineering, groundworks and recycling leader, is one step nearer to reinforcing the circular economy in the Netherlands as its latest investment, a new waste recycling wash plant designed and engineered by wet processing experts CDE, enters its final phase of construction.
Founded in 1940, Van de Beeten has evolved from its early roots in agricultural and contracting services into a multidisciplinary civil engineering and materials business headquartered in Veghel, the Netherlands.
Over more than six decades from when the business transitioned into earthmoving in the 1960s, Van de Beeten has expanded its capabilities across infrastructure, earthworks and materials processing, establishing itself as a key player in the Dutch construction sector.
With some 250 employees across multiple operational sites, the family-owned business has steadily diversified into circular economy activities, including the production and reuse of secondary construction materials such as crushed concrete.
This is the precursor to its latest landmark investment in a CDE wet processing plant to further enhance material recovery and improve operational efficiency as the country aims to be a fully circular economy by 2050.
Made possible in part by grant support from the Ministry of Climate and Green Growth, the 120 tonnes per hour plant is expected to be commissioned and fully operational later this year.
It will process a range of material streams, including secondary aggregate, crushed concrete, railway ballast and other materials from the company’s existing crushing and pre-screening plant. These streams will be processed separately, rather than as a mixed feed, to further remove tricky contaminants from the materials and improve the quality and yield of an expanded product suite that includes 0-2mm, 0-4mm and 4-8mm fractions used in a variety of applications such as paving and concrete sand.
The project was signed last year, shortly after the publication of the latest biennial Integratal Circular Economy Report (ICER). The report, compiled by the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, concluded that the Netherlands had not yet succeeded in significantly reducing the amount of raw materials it uses and that the goal of halving the amount of primary raw materials by 2030 is unlikely to be met[1]. Despite the assessment, Aldert Hanemaaijer, one of the project leaders of the ICER, stated there are still ‘plenty of opportunities’[2].
CDE’s business development manager Allan Esmann said: “To reduce reliance on raw materials we need to demonstrate strong market demand for secondary materials. Key to that is improving the quality of recycled materials to be equal to, or perhaps even better than, their virgin quarried equivalent.
“With CDE engineering excellence at the heart of the operation, Van de Beeten will demonstrate that recycled materials can absolutely be used in high-value applications typically reserved for primary aggregates. This plant is yet another step on the path to circularity and it will no doubt make a significant contribution to the bigger ambitions the Netherlands has to be a fully circular society.
[1] Integrated Circular Economy Report (ICER) – 2025 | PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
[2] Where does the Netherlands stand on the road to a circular economy? | PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
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