In-depth interview · Informations Entreprise · issue 198 · 2026 · pages 154–155
What if waste were one of the major industrial resources of the twenty-first century? In this interview, Jean-Baptiste Sandoz sets out a field-based vision: secure material flows, transform resources and build market outlets capable of supporting a new industrial base.
The publication alternately uses the Company Project and Compagnie Project names. SGI presents it here in full as an editorial archive.
A circular economy that must become industrial
The interview stresses that circularity cannot be reduced to sorting and collection. It truly begins when recovered materials reach a level of quality compatible with the requirements of an industrial user.
Scaling up then depends on several conditions: available tonnage, regular material flows, an appropriate process, land, energy, permits, financing, skills and secure market outlets.
Plastics as a strategic issue
Plastics are present in many material streams, including construction, electrical equipment, textiles, packaging and consumer goods. Their diversity makes transformation complex, but it also opens up a broad field of innovation for producing reusable polymers, monomers and materials.
Research, chemistry, mechatronics and operational experience must be combined in order to bring recycled materials closer to the standards expected by industry.
Starting with the territory to build the value chain
Local authorities, companies, tradespeople, research centres and training organizations each hold part of the solution. Bringing them together around a specific material stream makes it possible to define the right processing scale and retain more value within the territory.
This vision reflects SGI’s materials sovereignty doctrine: reducing dependencies by developing the capacity to harness and reintegrate resources that are already available.
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View the original publication (French PDF)
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