Background Industrial processes generate high quantities of mineral-rich waste. Water treatment sludge, paper-manufacture sludge, limed sludge and foundry sands, for example, are rich in silicium, lime and carbonate. French volumes of de-inking sludge (produced by papermaking) in 2002 alone was estimated to contain 455 000 tonnes of dry materials. Furthermore, sludge production from water treatment stations (industrial and institutional) is estimated at 850 000 tonnes of dry matter per year. This quantity was expected to increase to 1 300 000 tonnes in 2005. Previously, the main disposal options of these types of waste were landfill, land spreading and incineration. Alternative options were required to help industry comply with both the increasingly severe regulations on land spreading, and the European Directive No. 1999 of 26/04/1999 (which aims to reduce the negative effects of putting waste into landfill). Objectives The beneficiary, ARF, proposed an innovative solution for recycling waste as an alternative to landfill and agriculture spreading. Recycling waste was expected to help preserve natural resources (clay, lime, fossil fuels) and offer long-term, environmentally friendly waste management solutions. The ARFVALORMAT project’s goals focused on producing chemical binders from mineral-rich waste using a special preparation process based on residues. The process proposed would save on the types of noble mineral resources that are conventionally used in the production of binders. This project also planned to treat waste water and produce reusable water mainly for road-making and construction. Results The ARFVALORMAT project was carried out in three main phases that mainly involved determining which accumulations of waste were potentially useable in the recycling process and how they could be recovered. The phases were: Creation of a database of waste containing minerals (silicium, carbonate, etc.) potentially suitable for use in the binder manufacturing process; Blending of the waste collected from different sources and preparation of the raw mix (mineral substitute) for curing tests at an industrial scale; Characterisation operations of the manufactured binders to ensure that they fulfilled the necessary technical and environmental requirements for use in road-building or as additives for the concrete industry.The process established by the LIFE ARFVALORMAT project demonstrated how 55% of the target waste could be reused to produce hydraulic binders. These figures were lower than the anticipated results but the process did still indicate a useful new approach to waste management. The project also managed to establish an exhaustive database of sites that are of potential interest as waste sources for the production of hydraulic binders. Works initiated by the LIFE project are now being built on by ongoing activity and the beneficiary continues to aim to achieve its set objectives of producing 100% waste hydraulic binders. The beneficiary is pursuing its research to identify a better rate of waste used in the hydraulic binder production and was awarded a grant by the French government to do so under the ARF Minerval project. Project outcomes can be seen to have made useful contributions to conserving natural resources and results are in accordance with the European Directives No. 1999 (concerning landfill of waste) and No. 91/271 (concerning urban waste water). Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report (see "Read more" section).