Paris 2024: Olympians standing on podiums made out of shampoo bottles

Follow the latest news on the 2024 Paris Olympics

At the proudest moment of their careers, as they are rewarded with an Olympic medal, the world's top athletes will be standing on a podium made from bits of recycled shampoo bottles and possibly Coca-Cola caps.

The bright pink factory which made 68 podiums and 11,000 stadium seats for the Paris 2024 Summer Games stands in stark contrast with its impoverished surroundings in Aubervilliers, north of Paris.

Known as Le Pave, the start-up company is a poster child for the Games which have been promoted as green and locally-sourced.

“It's something I'm very proud of,” Le Pave's 25-year-old chief of staff Lucas Philipponneau told The National, shouting to be heard across the din of machines converting shredded plastic into large panels of various colours.

Building podiums and seats from waste is a first at an Olympic event.

“Billions of people who will be watching the Games on TV around the world will see athletes standing on podiums made here in Aubervilliers in this factory,” said Mr Philipponneau.

In his hand, he holds out red, blue, yellow and white pieces of plastic that were once bottle caps. This is HDPE, or High-Density Poly Ethylene, a material also found in shampoo bottles.

Compressed together with heat technology in large silos, they come out as panels that can be used on walls, tables or kitchens.

“I think this is a Coca-Cola cap,” said Mr Philipponneau, pointing at a red piece of plastic. “And this is from Fanta or Schweppes,” he continued, holding out several colours including orange and yellow.

“This the story of Le Pave: to use raw materials and waste to make new material,” he added. No glue or additives are used to make sure that the panels can be recycled once again.

For the order request by the organised of the Olympic Games, the start-up shaped 40 tonnes of its recycled panels into silver-coloured podiums in a separate factory in the south of Paris.

Another 100 tonnes of panels went towards making 11,000 seats for the Aquatics Centre and the South Paris Arena stadium.

Their different colouring – white and yellow for the Aquatics Centre, black for the South Paris Arena Stadium – was a decision made by architects.

It was a challenge for Le Pave, which was founded just a few months before the Olympic Games' order came through in 2019, to respond to the substantial demand.

Giving priority to local companies from the wider Seine-Saint-Denis area, the poorest in France, was a priority for the Games' organisers.

They also allocated a quarter of all contracts to small and medium-sized companies and 10 per cent of the jobs to long-term unemployed.

In four years, Le Pave has hired dozens of new employees and is planning to expand to Burgundy. It has also raised its profile by installing a decorative panel at the Elysee Palace.

“Without this project, it wouldn't be the same for us for sure,” said Mr Philipponneau.

The factory is as “low-tech” as possible, he said, to “remain coherent” with their green philosophy.

However, there is also an awareness that the scale of Le Pave's recycling project for the Games, which made use of less than 150 tonnes of recycled plastic, is largely symbolic.

The Paris region hosts six local recycling centres, including one in Nanterre which recycles 50,000 tonnes of HDPE a year, said Mr Philipponneau.

“It's very little compared to the waste generated, but it's a first step”, he said.