Individuals Understanding Second life...

Ecomaison organizes the collection, sorting, reuse, repair and recycling of household products and materials.

Furniture, bedding, games and toys, DIY and garden items, as well as building products and materials: our mission is to extend their lifespan. Our goal? To achieve zero waste, with you.

Ecomaison reuses and recycles household objects and materials

Ecomaison is an eco-organization, i.e. a not-for-profit public-interest company, approved by the French government to take charge of the end-of-life management of household objects and materials: furniture, bedding, building materials, DIY and garden items, games and toys.

  • Our role? Reduce the environmental impact of these objects and materials by organizing their collection, sorting, repair, reuse and recycling.
  • Our goal? To achieve zero waste.

We collect the eco-participation fee, which is the sum added to the sale price of a new product. This money is used to set up services and solutions that enable the general public and professionals alike to give a second life to household objects and materials.

The aim is to extend the lifespan of all these objects as far as possible, then recycle the materials to make new objects or products. This avoids drawing on natural resources and protects the environment.
At Ecomaison, we do everything we can to make sorting easy for everyone. In concrete terms, we finance, organize and orchestrate collection, sorting, repair, reuse and recycling.

In concrete terms, we finance, organize and orchestrate collection, sorting, repair, reuse and recycling.

Key figures

km

average distance between your home and an Ecomaison collection point

+

partners actors the social economy for re-use

+

millions

from tonnes of used furniture and bedding - and now toys, DIY and garden items and building materials - taken over by Ecomaison since 2013

%

from recovery through reuserecycling and energy recovery

At Ecomaison, our aim is to achieve zero waste together. This means making it easy for everyone to sort, collect, reuse and recycle. To meet this common challenge, everyone can act in favor of the circular economy. Ecomaison is here to help you take action.

  • For the general public: we offer solutions all over France, easily identifiable thanks to the interactive map. Anyone can find a collection point close to home, donate to a partner association and find out that retailers offer take-back services. 
  • For companies that produce or distribute objects and materials for the home: we support them in their efforts to promote the circular economy and meet their regulatory obligations. We put in place solutions for take-back, reuse and repair, and promote innovation to help them eco-design their products or integrate recycled materials.
  • Craftsmen and home improvement professionals: we provide them with solutions for easy, free disposal of construction site waste once it has been sorted.
  • Local authorities and social economy associations: we provide them with advice and support to make their collection, repair and reuse solutions a success.

Ecomaison has made reuse one of its priorities.
On the one hand, it's an effective way of prolonging the life of objects and thus reducing their environmental footprint. On the other hand, it contributes to the survival of players in the Social and Solidarity Economy, notably through social integration.

You can play a key role! When you don't know what to do with an object you no longer use, and it's in good condition, make people happy and think of a donation for solidarity!

Key figures

In 2024,

millions

euros dedicated to reuse

In 2024,

metric tons

of reusable furniture will be sent to

Recycling wood, metal, foam, plastics... Ecomaison finds outlets for recycled materials. For example, we are the leading supplier of recycled wood in France, with 800,000 tonnes a year.

We work with innovators and industrialists to ensure that all the materials we take on are recycled even more effectively, so that they can be used in the manufacture of new products.

We also support companies in the eco-design of their products and services, to limit their environmental footprint. Ecomaison has a program dedicated to this subject: Innovation for Eco-Design.

What objects and products does Ecomaison support?

We take care of a very wide range of household objects and materials, organized by product family: furnishings, bedding, decorative textiles, building products and materials, DIY and garden items, toys and outdoor games... on the sole condition that they are not electric, thermal or battery-powered.

From garden slides to hammers, from tables to armchairs, from kitchen furniture to bathroom materials, from watering cans to board games... discover the list!

Four main product families

All the objects and materials we take in can also be donated and reused! Use our geolocation map to find the Social and Solidarity Economy partners located near you, by selecting the "Donation & Reuse" filter.

The second life of objects

Damaged furniture, toys nobody plays with anymore, old mattresses stored in the attic, tools sleeping in the lean-to, leftover building materials... Ecomaison helps you to sort out and give a new life to all these objects, which deserve better than to end up in the garbage can.
Instead, they can be used in another household, thanks to reuse, or become materials again, thanks to recycling.

They seem useless, they clutter you up... and yet, they have value!

The second life of your objects begins at an Ecomaison collection point. Once Ecomaison has taken charge of them, they will all be directed towards a re-use or recycling solution.

For re-use, our 600 partners in the Social and Solidarity Economy use various collection channels to give a new lease of life to objects you no longer use.

Click on the "Donation & Reuse" filter to find the Social and Solidarity Economy partners closest to you on our geolocation map.

When it comes to recycling, once your items have been collected from your local waste collection center or store, they are sent to a sorting center. Here, teams separate mattresses, sofas and upholstered seating elements from metal, wood and plastic. Each is then sent to a dedicated preparation center. Depending on their specific characteristics, they are further sorted, then shredded into different sizes according to their subsequent uses. Your objects have become recycled materials!

Every material, every use! Wood, once ground to the right dimensions, is integrated into the industrial production of new wood panels for furniture, for example. As for mattresses, dismantling centers separate the springs, textiles and various types of foam, which are used, for example, to make thermal or acoustic insulation for the building industry. And the plastic? It is mainly reused by automotive equipment manufacturers.

Since its creation, Ecomaison has carried out numerous research and innovation projects to improve the recycling performance of the materials it handles. New forms of recycling have thus gone beyond the experimental stage. One example is the chemical recycling of mattress foam. The process transforms the foam into polyol, the chemical component of the foam. Polyurethane foam can then be remade for use in sofa seats or mattresses. As for the latex recovered from certain mattresses, it is crushed, compressed and reused to make sleeping mats for farm animals. Experiments are currently underway to transform this latex into powder for use in new sports applications and construction site protection.

Other recycling possibilities are being explored: plastic could be used to make new toys, and plush foam is being tested to create acoustic or decorative materials for use in day-care centers.

Every minute, Ecomaison collects 2.5 tonnes of waste.
97% of it is recycled.

tonnes of wood recycled per year

tonnes of scrap metal recycled per year

tonnes of foam recycled

tonnes of plastic recycled

Eco-participation, a tool for financing the second life of products

Whether you buy your furniture in a store, from a catalog or from online sales sites, you've probably noticed an "eco-participation" on your invoice or receipt. It applies in particular to furniture, building products and materials, DIY and garden items and toys. Ecomaison explains.

By law, companies distributing or importing new products onto the French market must finance the end-of-life of their products. To meet this obligation, manufacturers and distributors can join an eco-organization. In this case, they pay an eco-participation fee for each product sold. Eco-participation is not a tax: it is not paid to the State. It is a contribution paid to the eco-organization by the member distributor and/or manufacturer.