Kickstart: Sustainable seating from packaging waste at the Olympics

Parisian packaging waste will be converted into front-row seats at some 2024 Olympics events.

In an effort to drastically cut its carbon footprint, Olympic Games organizers in Paris are reusing older facilities, using more sustainable building materials and using recycled plastics for chairs at the aquatic center — home to swimming, diving and water polo competitions — and the Adidas Arena, which will host the badminton and rhythmic gymnastics events.

Le Pavé — a company that makes flooring, tables, chairs, bathroom fixtures and other items from recycled plastics — told Reuters earlier this year that it is working with 50 recyclers who will provide 100 metric tons of material of packaging waste. About 80 percent of the material will come from post-consumer recycling bins near the facilities in the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis.

The bulk of that material comes from plastic bottles and caps.

Le Pavé uses a thermal compression molding process it patented soon after launching the company in 2018.

Paris Olympics organizers have pledged to have a carbon footprint smaller than those of the 2012 games in London and 2016 in Brazil, including travel to the games.

After the Olympics, July 26 to Aug. 11, the aquatics center will remain open as a recreational facility for the Seine-Saint-Denis residents who provided the plastics for the seats.

While companies are busy buffing their machinery and booths in time for NPE2024 next month, here's a reminder that economic conditions aren't quite so sparkling for everyone.

German machinery supplier Illig Group has entered insolvency in self-administration, a process similar to Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S.

Illig, which marked its 75th anniversary in 2021, has struggled with inflation, higher energy costs and a customer base skittish to invest while also dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic recovery, international conflicts and supply chain issues, Karen Laird from our sister paper Sustainable Plastics writes.

Illig will still be at NPE, and it maintains it is on the right path with its portfolio and technology. Customers will see no restrictions on their operations, the company said.

A plastic duck may have failed to set any records during a duck race in Dublin in 2006, but it still made news this week when a teenager on the island of Orkney found the weathered duck on a beach. It had managed to float more than 400 miles to the island off the north coast of Scotland.

Ironically, the 2006 world record attempt for the largest plastic duck race flopped when the 150,000 ducks failed to travel a full mile in the River Liffey. It did, however, raise more than 100,000 euros for a children's hospital.

"It's going very, very bad," one child observer told Ireland's RTE at the time. "Only two ducks have gone and the rest of them are still there." (You can find the archived video here.)

The duck found by 13-year-old Filip Miller was weathered and lacked the traditional yellow color, the BBC reported, but a stamp promoting it as part of the 2006 event was still visible.

In 2022, another of the Dublin ducks was found on the Isle of Man, about 112 miles east of the Liffey.