The Challenge

Global plastic production grew from around 2 million tonnes in 1950 to 460 million tonnes in 2019, while plastic waste is projected to nearly triple by 2060 without significant policy change (Our World in Data, 2026; UNEP, n.d.a.). Around 9% of plastic waste is recycled globally, while 50% is landfilled, 19% is incinerated, and 22% is mismanaged, including through uncontrolled dumping, open burning and leakage into land and water environments (OECD, 2022).

Across Europe, almost 32 million tonnes of plastic waste is generated annually. Plastic accounts for around 80% of marine litter, while 87% of Europeans are concerned about its environmental effects. (European Commission, 2026).

EU plastic-packaging recycling has increased, but most material is still not recycled. In 2023, the EU generated 35.3 kg of plastic packaging waste per person, of which only 14.8 kg was recycled. Eurostat reported an overall recycling rate of 42.1%, up from 38.2% in 2013 (Eurostat, 2025). Around 1.3 million tonnes of plastic waste were exported outside the EU for treatment in 2023.

Reasons included limited local treatment capacity, technology or financial resources to treat the material domestically. (European Parliament, 2024). This points to a wider circularity challenge: collecting plastic waste is not enough if suitable processing capacity and markets for the recovered material are unavailable locally.

A Circular Solution

After French construction-materials company Le Pavé was selected to produce seating for the Adidas Arena in Porte de la Chapelle and the Olympic Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, it partnered with Paris-based plastics recycler Lemon Tri to collect material for the project (LemonTri, 2021). Lemon Tri organised a citizen collection campaign for plastic caps, establishing collection points across Île-de-France and managing the logistics needed to consolidate the material at its Pantin warehouse (LemonTri, 2021).

The project created a local collection-to-manufacturing chain in which Lemon Tri collected discarded plastic and Le Pavé converted it into material for new seating (Chatziioannou, 2024).

Le Pavé converts plastic waste into construction and design materials that can replace applications otherwise made from virgin plastic and, in some cases, cement-based materials (IOC, 2024b). Using a patented industrial process, the company transforms post-industrial and post-consumer plastic into panels, including its flagship SoftSurface™ material, using plastic collected in France and manufacturing the resulting panels domestically (European Union, n.d.).

The collected plastic is sorted and crushed by recycling partners, formed into panels at workshops in Île-de-France and Burgundy, then cut and assembled by construction-industry professionals (BNP Paribas, 2024). For the Aquatics Centre, Le Pavé worked with architecture firms VenhoevenCS and Atelier 2/3/4 to develop a tailor-made colourway: a white base from recycled shampoo bottles with yellow flecks from locally collected plastic caps (Le Pavé, n.d.a.; Le Pavé, n.d.b.). Le Pavé partnered with Master Industrie, a Vendée-based specialist in public seating, and the finished seats were tested and certified for fire resistance and mechanical durability (Le Pavé, n.d.b.).

The project demonstrates how a locally collected plastic waste stream can be matched with domestic processing and manufacturing capacity to produce a usable secondary material for demanding public applications.

Environmental, Social and Economic Impact

Together, the two venues installed 11,000 seats made using 100 tonnes of plastic waste. The Adidas Arena's 8,000 seats used 70 tonnes of post-consumer plastic, around 80% sourced from Île-de-France. The Aquatics Centre's 3,000 seats recycled a further 30 tonnes, mainly from sources in the region (Le Pavé, n.d.a.; Le Pavé, n.d.b.). By using recycled plastic as the seat material, the project reduced the requirement for virgin plastic in this application. Collection, panel manufacture and seat production took place within France, creating a domestic supply chain connecting waste collection, materials processing and public-seating manufacture (European Union, n.d.; BNP Paribas, 2024).

The collection campaign also gave schools, stadiums and companies a direct way to participate. Partner associations used the campaign to deliver activities on disability awareness, more sustainable practices in sport and hands-on plastic recycling (LemonTri, 2021). The collaboration formed part of Paris 2024’s wider effort to open Games-related contracts to social and solidarity economy organisations and local businesses; around 460 such businesses had been contracted by March 2024 (IOC, 2024b).

Economically, the project converted demand for Olympic infrastructure into a domestic manufacturing contract spanning plastics collection, material processing, architectural design and public-seating production. The finished seats remain in two permanent public venues, while the project demonstrated the use of recycled plastic in a technically demanding, large-scale application.

Replicability

Lemon Tri and Le Pavé are part of a wider movement to connect local plastic collection with processing and manufacturing. Similar collaborations across Europe show how organisations occupying different points in a value chain can work together to keep recovered plastic in circulation.

• Fructal, Dinos and GastroPET (Slovenia), created a closed-loop system in which Dinos collects and sorts discarded bottles, GastroPET converts them into recycled PET, and Fructal uses the material in new bottles. More than 1,120 tonnes of PET were recycled and reused during the project, while the recycled content of Fructal bottles increased from 30% to 50%.

  
  

• Ballygowan, Re-turn and Limerick Polymers Production (Ireland), trialled a bottle made with recycled PET sourced entirely through Ireland’s Deposit Return Scheme. Returned bottles were collected and sorted in Limerick, processed by a bottle-production partner and used in new bottles manufactured at Ballygowan’s Newcastle West production line.

  
  

• Fors, Aage Vestergaard Larsen and Schoeller Plast Enterprise (Denmark), collaborated across the plastic value chain. Fors collected and sorted household plastic, Aage Vestergaard Larsen reprocessed it into reusable raw material, and Schoeller Plast Enterprise manufactured new household sorting products from the recovered plastic.