Ecomaison has selected the first 30 winners of its "Reuse and Territories" Call for Expressions of Interest (AMI). Support for these projects forms part of the Ecomaison reuse fund, which devotes 20 million euros a year to solidarity-based reuse of furnishing items. Launched in early 2024, Ecomaison's program dedicated to the development of solidarity-based reuse supports Social and Solidarity Economy players with investment projects for reuse. Among these emblematic projects is the support given to Emmaüs for the reuse of furniture in the Olympic villages.
Through the AMI "Réemploi et Territoires" (Reuse and Territories) program, Ecomaison supports organizations (Emmaüs groups, resourceries, associations or independent integration companies) involved in the reuse and recycling of furnishings. The aim is to increase the volume and quality of reused furniture.
The AMI focused on 4 main themes: increasing furniture collection, purchasing equipment, creating jobs and expanding sites.
For the first session, Ecomaison is allocating 1.5 million euros to 30 projects in 22 departments in mainland France and the French overseas territories.
Supported over a period of 1 to 6 years, the first 30 projects selected will increase the capacity of associations to receive items donated to them by retailers or individuals, which can then be given away or sold at solidarity prices.
" We want to offer our partners in the social and
economy the opportunity to carry out ambitious projects in favor of employment, and we're delighted to support the many varied and innovative proposals
".
Dominique Mignon, President of Ecomaison.
Among the projects selected by Ecomaison, support for the Emmaüs Movement to handle part of the logistics, i.e. almost 1,400 tonnes of furniture from the Paris Olympic villages, amounts to €350,000, or 30% of the cost of this unique and historic operation for the movement.
In this way, 8,000 mattresses, 13,000 pillows and 14,800 pallets of furniture used by Olympic and Paralympic athletes (storage, bedding, seating, table tops) will be 90% reused, and then supplied to the solidarity sales rooms of the 113 Emmaüs groups throughout France.
A second session of the "Reemployment and Territories" call for expressions of interest is planned for the second half of 2024, with an additional envelope of 1.5 million euros, with the same objective: to sharply accelerate the reuse and reutilization of furniture through growth in associations' capacities.
Ecomaison's reuse strategy for furnishings is to double the volumes reused by 2030, in particular by supporting projects run by Social and Solidarity Economy players themselves.
In early 2024, for example, Ecomaison announced that it was now devoting nearly 20 million euros a year to the reuse and re-employment of furnishing components.
