Every year, scallops break records in the English Channel. An abundant resource that delights the taste buds and… fills the trash cans. However, bio-waste is subject to a sorting and recovery obligation. Big news: a factory will offer shellfish an outlet in Saint-Martin-des-Entrées, near Bayeux (Calvados). CBST-Environnement is preparing to launch construction on its scallop grinding site to produce calcium carbonate powder from the first quarter of 2026.
“The shell is made up of just over 99% pure calcium carbonate,” indicates Gilles Begue-Turon, the general director of this Normandy company, created five and a half years ago for this project. This material is sought after in agriculture, construction, cosmetics, plastics processing or pharmacology, for example in the composition of toothpaste. » Contacts have been established with several players, often keen to find more virtuous supplies while calcium carbonate is regularly extracted from mines.
“The first year, we will produce 10,000 tonnes to pay for ourselves. Within four years, we will increase to 33,000 tonnes. In these proportions, this is a European first,” indicates the CSBT-Environnement team. Last season, 40,000 tonnes of scallops were caught in Normandy. So far, collection has come at a cost, both for the fishermen and for the community. Suffice to say that the factory is eagerly awaited, in Normandy and beyond since the shellfish will also come from Brittany and Hauts-de-France. Around sixty hires are planned, while waiting for better since CSBT-Environnement entrepreneurs are studying the crushing and recovery of other shellfish waste.
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