How a Startup Is Helping Turn the Paris Olympics ‘Green’How a Startup Is Helping Turn the Paris Olympics ‘Green’

The organizers of the Summer Olympics now underway in Paris vowed to have the “greenest” Olympic Games in modern history. That ambition has experienced some ups and downs — to lower the Games’ carbon footprint, the organizers did not want to install air conditioning in the Olympic Village, but did a 180 after athletes complained. Nevertheless, the Games seem to be achieving a respectable level of sustainability, thanks partly to the efforts of companies like Le Pavé, a startup that produces SoftSurface materials composed entirely of recycled high-density polyethylene and polystyrene. These materials have been used to fabricate podiums for the winning athletes as well as thousands of bleacher seats.

Le Pavé recycled some 40 metric tons of waste plastic to produce the podiums, according to a company profile posted by bpifrance, a French public-private financial services organization that supports startups, Le Pavé among them.

From a pizza oven to thermoforming

Le Pavé was started by two architectural students in the town of Versailles, France, Marius Hamelot and Jim Pasquet, who had been friends since childhood. They began by melting waste plastic in a repurposed pizza oven for use as a floor covering. They won a series of awards in innovation competitions, which landed them a spot in a business incubator in Paris and got the attention of investors. By 2019, they had patented a thermal compression molding technology for use in the building sector, reported the New York Times in a profile published on July 6, 2024. “Soon after, Mr. Hamelot got a call from Solideo, the French company overseeing infrastructure for the 2024 Games, including a new Olympic Village in the . . . suburbs . . . that was designed to promote zero waste,” wrote Liz Alderman in the Times.

Le Pavé’s SoftSurface materials are produced in panel formats measuring 140 X 90 or 240 x 135 cm and in thicknesses ranging from 8 to 15 mm. The 100% recycled materials can be processed like wood — cut, sanded, drilled, even thermoformed, the company says on its website. It has already recycled more than 800 tons of plastic waste, all of which is recovered and processed into the finished product in France. Earlier this year, it inaugurated a new factory which has capacity to convert 1,000 tonnes of plastic annually into SoftSurface panels.

Expansion plans

For the Olympics and Paralympics, Le Pavé produced a total of 11,000 seats for the bleachers as well as the podiums. The project has brought the young company international attention and accelerated growth. In addition to the small factory in Burgundy they opened this year, the company is raising funds to open two more units in other parts of France.

Revenue has been doubling year on year, Pasquet told French daily Le Parisien, and the company funnels a significant amount of it into R&D to develop other materials and technologies that will lead to a greener future. As the company notes on its website: Our ambition is to be able to recycle all waste that currently has no other outlet, the waste that no one wants, the waste that is not recycled, and the waste that is likely to end up in nature.