Festival Carpets Replaced Twice Daily : Red Carpet Recycling for Veolia in Cannes
French environmental services firm Veolia has teamed up with Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, the organier of the Cannes Film Festival, to recycle some 1500 tonnes of waste from the event – including the famous red carpets.
According to Veolia, during the film festival the red carpet and the Palais carpets are renewed on average twice a day.
To recycle this waste the company sends a total of around 80 tonnes of carpet to a sorting center in Carros, north of Nice. The fibre (polypropylene) from the carpets is pelletised to make a secondary raw material reused in the manufacture of industrial packaging and road signs, as well as in the automotive, construction and food industries.
"We send these carpets to our sorting center in Carros for initial treatment,” explained Nicolas Pont, Waste solutions' Director of Veolia in Mediterranean (France). “Sorting is done to remove impurities and then they are baled and shipped to a factory in Italy.”
Once transported to Italy, Pont said that they are processed, passed through an extruder and made into polypropylene beads.
Veolia said that in addition to recycling the carpets at the festival it also provides containers and refuse collection vehicles and a fixed compactor.
The company added that it encourages exhibitors and organisers to produce less waste and to sort the waste which is produced, including metal, plastic film and aluminum decorations. It also recovers organics from the dining areas.
Festivals figures:
1500 tonnes of waste processed annually
898 tonnes of industrial waste recycled in the Veolia plant in Valazur
319 tonnes of wood (category B) recycled at Villeuneuve-Loubet and then sent to Italy to be subsequently reused by pulp and paper industry in France and Europe
110 tonnes of paper and cardboard processed on the Carros sorting platform.
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