The Le Pavé® Project

In September 2016, there were four of us, students from the École nationale d’architecture de Versailles [Versailles National Architecture School]. For 6 months, we were tasked with designing a campus in the heart of the Kenyan desert. The challenge? Using local and renewable resources. As we explored the surrounding area, we discovered an open-air landfill, which made us realize how poorly waste is managed around the world. In 2015, over 6 billion tons of plastic waste accumulated in landfills, in the wild, or into the oceans.

The main problem is that when we recycle a plastic bottle into a new bottle, we are merely postponing the problem. For each new bottle, virgin plastic must be added to maintain quality. Furthermore, failures in our collection, sorting, and recycling system mean that with each cycle, some plastic is lost. This is not a sustainable solution.

Simultaneously, we realized that conventional construction materials were having disastrous consequences for the planet. Even today, concrete remains the most widely used material. Concrete poses problems such as sand overexploitation and substantial CO2 emissions per ton. We needed to find a sustainable alternative and invent a new, ethical, green construction material.

We quickly turned our attention to waste, especially plastic waste and immediately took action. We collected plastic waste by digging through Versailles’ bins. We then sorted, crushed, and heated it in a homemade oven.

That’s how the very first sample of Le Pavé® material was born. Fresh from the oven, it was beautiful and resilient. We had created a new material with endless creative possibilities and seriously interesting mechanical properties.

We immediately decided to create an association project to extend our experiments with plastic. Our goal was simple: help solve the problem of plastic pollution and reinvent the building sector.

Given the natural characteristics of this new material, it made sense to use it as a floor covering. The original idea behind the first Le Pavé® material was to use it as a floor covering.

Each year in France, approximately 250 million square meters of floor covering are manufactured. This represents a potential 250,000 kg of plastic to be recycled into this innovative material.

We very quickly realized the scale of the tasks ahead, both in solving the problem of plastic pollution and creating a green material that could be used on a large scale. To successfully accomplish our mission, a legal business structure would be more relevant than an association. We needed to industrialize our plastic waste transformation technique to make our green construction material (SoftSurface™) accessible. This is how the Le Pavé® company was born.

The route taken by plastic waste was and remains very unclear in France. Initially, we partnered with a Senegalese company through the supplier Waste & Hope. This French social enterprise had developed a label for ethical and fair-trade plastic.

We have now decided to go 100% Made in France: from the origin of the raw materials to the manufacture and use of the products, right through to the recovery of the products at the end of their life.. By working closely with our suppliers, producers, and end users, we can implement a truly circular economy.

We are now a team of dedicated individuals committed to a future we all want. Since early 2023, we have been passionately developing a type of material (SoftSurface™) from our workshop just outside Paris, in Aubervilliers. We create unique, sustainable green materials that have a variety of uses, always via plastic waste.

Le Pavé® materials are available in panel form. These measure 140 x 90 cm or 240 x 135 cm, with different thicknesses, from 8 to 15 mm. The advantage is that these recycled panels can be manipulated like wood. They can be cut, sanded, drilled, even thermoformed.

In practical terms, with 1 ton of plastic waste, 1500 kg of CO2 emissions are avoided per 100 square meters of green construction (compared to using virgin HDPE or PS).

Since then, Le Pavé® has continued to show the world the benefits of using SoftSurface™. This type of material appeals to the entire industry as it is both versatile and endowed with endless creative potential. Le Pavé® brings together inspiring and innovative designs for a wide range of uses: bar coverings, furniture, lighting, floor and wall coverings, shelves, worktops, backsplashes, consoles and more.

Through our partners’ creations, we are demonstrating that it is possible to combine recycled plastics and construction. We have already recycled over 550 tons of plastic thanks to partners like Adidas, Jean Dubost, Gallia, Le Mobilier National, Veja, Bourgues Construction, and even the Palais de l’Élysée [Élysée Palace].

We are proud of what we have achieved so far, but we do not want to stop there. This is just the start of a long and exciting adventure. Our raison d’être? We offer sustainable and well-thought-out materials, from waste to recycling. Every day, a team of scientists conducts tests with different materials destined to be thrown away in order to design tomorrow’s green materials.

Our ambition is to be able to recycle all waste that currently has no other outlet: the waste that no one wants, the waste that is not recycled, and the waste that is likely to end up in nature.

Le Pavé® is much more than just green materials. We are committed to bringing people together. As part of moving towards a circular economy, Le Pavé® is committed to prioritizing the afterlife of materials right from the design stage. Determined to change the way we think about waste, we are collaborating with local actors who are eager to adopt and promote more responsible practices.

We are partnering with designers, architects, cooperatives, associations, and schools to create the next generation of sustainable products.