Carton Vert: the start-up whose credo is the reuse of cardboard

Jean Zeid 06:52, February 29, 2024

This Thursday morning, we're talking cardboard and recycling.

With a start-up that has a smile.

Its name: Carton Vert, company created by Antonin Hameury-Hao and Romain Dupuis.

They have just raised 1.4 million euros to strengthen its credo: the reuse of cardboard.

However, cardboard is a well-recycled material in France, right? 

Yes, and more generally, it is the driving force of the paper industry.

Packaging cardboard weighs 4.5 million tonnes per year, out of the 7 million produced in total, according to the latest report from the Ecological Transition Agency (Ademe).

Basically two thirds.

And the continued growth of e-commerce further accentuates this leadership.  

Carton Vert's observation is that hundreds of thousands of containers are sent to waste and recycling, even though they could still be used.

Of course, many of them will be recycled, but how much energy is spent when it could simply be reused.

This is the goal of this young company.

Besides, she does it very well.

It has put two million boxes back into circulation since its creation in 2020 in La Rochelle, a saving of 1,000 tonnes of CO2 and 1.6 million liters of water, because recycling is not neutral in environmental matters.

How do they recover these packaging boxes that are already used but still in good condition?

They go to see the companies.

At first, they went to collect new, unused packaging from the cardboard manufacturers' warehouses.

For what ?

Because the latter always produce around 10% more than the order given to them, in order to secure their production or to anticipate the success of the product to be packaged.

It can also unfortunately be a commercial failure and there, Carton Vert recovers the stocks of unused cardboard boxes.

Then, there are already companies which reuse cardboard boxes in good condition, but due to lack of network, lack of sector, the action remains at a local level.

However, the goal of Carton Vert is to demonstrate that a reused cardboard sector is economically viable in France and neighboring countries.

What is their business model? 

For companies that sell their cardboard, we are between 100 to 200 euros per tonne of cardboard recovered.

This is more interesting than with recyclers since the latter also charge for transport and processing.

Now we have to find buyers.

And for them, the economic gain from these reused cardboard boxes is real.

Between 30% and 50% cheaper to purchase than new packaging.

And depending on the volume and delivery distance, Carton Vert offers transport from a certain amount.

What is there to dream of reusing 10,000 tonnes of abandoned cardboard by 2027 and creating this new sector of new packaging which nevertheless goes into the trash.