Incoming 

Reclaimed cobblestones

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This by-product fascinates us for a while. For the first time, we have it in stock!

But let's start at the beginning. Cobblestones are probably the most reused building material in Belgium. The reason is partly historical. Before WWII, there were many cobble quarries in our country. Quenast, for example, was the world's largest producer in the 1930s, exporting its extremely resistant porphyry as far away as New York. By the 1960s, however, this local and largely handmade production had almost completely ceased. Today, Quenast still mines, but its porphyry is crushed into gravel and railway ballast.

The story doesn't end there. After the collapse of production, of course, the streets and squares were still full of cobblestones. Suddenly, the only available source of local setts was the reclamation sector. A handful of companies took the art of collecting, storing, sorting and selling these used products to a new level. Today, there are more than 15 specialised dealers of reclaimed cobblestones in Belgium. They supply not only small quantities to individual customers, but also large public projects. In fact, municipalities are both regular suppliers and regular buyers. From 2011 onwards, our colleagues at Rotor asbl visited these companies while building the Opalis online directory. We were amazed to discover this well-established reuse practice – which even today is rarely mentioned in seminars on circular procurement.

In recent decades, many of these companies have also developed new techniques for sawing away the top few centimetres of salvaged cobbles, resulting in a cobble with a flat surface suitable for bicycle traffic, buggies, etc. A by-product of this remanufacturing process is the 'cap' of the cobble. Interestingly, these 3-6 cm thick stone tiles have the patina of decades of traffic on one side, and a strictly flat surface on the other, offering a variety of unique possibilities for floor or wall tiling!