After the UN passed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, Sorigué joined the initiative through a variety of efforts. Specifically, the group focuses on pursuing environmentally-friendly production and materials in its operations.  

In this sense, its aggregate business boasts a construction waste recovery facility certified by the Catalonia Waste Agency and a railway aggregate plant in the province of Tarragona, which are transforming old concrete crossties from the Mediterranean Corridor into recycled aggregates. 

The recovery facility is currently processing old concrete crossties. These are being replaced by new crossties to adjust the gauge to international standards and allow all trains to travel through the corridor. 

Reusable Material

Laid perpendicular to the rails, crossties must comply with a regulatory distance and their function is to keep the two rails of the track together, while transferring the weight and lateral and longitudinal forces created by the movement of trains. They are extremely durable and prefabricated from prestressed-concrete.  

Breaking them up is a two-stage process. The first stage uses a full-rotation excavator with a clamp attachment to separate steel from concrete.  

Then, the concrete is processed using a mill and screened for a highly specific aggregate size and shape.  

These recycled aggregates are CE marked and have an EPD (environmental product declaration) label, and are resold for bases and sub-bases, helping foster one of the fundamental principles of the circular economy: reuse. This gives concrete crossties a new life, which would otherwise become waste.  

In addition to the Tarragona recovery facility, Sorigué has another three located in the La Plana de El Corb industrial complex in Balaguer, Lleida, the concrete prefab manufacturing plant in Sant Andreu de la Barca, Barcelona, and in Zuera, Aragon.