Greenest Olympics Ever? Recycled Plastics as a Prime Raw Material

When a Paris-based start-up was hired to create podiums and bleacher seats entirely from recycled plastics, not only did it help make the Summer Olympic Games the greenest in history, but it also kicked off France’s economic transformation with new industries focusing on clean technology.

“There is an overabundance of plastic that is harming the environment, but which also has proven economic potential if it can be repurposed,” explains Marius Hamelot, co-founder of Le Pavé start-up. “We see that we have an opportunity to build something that will last for years and years. This is about something that’s bigger than all of us.”

For the first time in Olympic history, all 68 podiums were made from 100% recycled plastic, and 11,000 bleacher seats for two newly built arenas were manufactured from 100 metric tons of used shampoo bottles and 18 metric tons of multicoloured bottle caps. Upon signing a beefy contract with Olympic organizers, Le Pavé expanded its staff, going from only three employees to 34 – hiring people on long-term unemployment, an asylum seeker, and a former prisoner eager to start a new chapter of his life – and its activities by opening two new factories. The company added an education dimension, asking 1,700 schoolchildren from 50 elementary and middle schools in the Île-de-France region to collect one million yellow bottle caps. Consequently, children learned about recycling, asking tough questions about the environmental impacts of plastics and ways to reduce carbon emissions. Reindustrializing France is among the French government’s priorities, and small factories like Le Pavé’s better meet environmental and social challenges than the old model of mega factories.