THINKING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX
In the North of Paris, the Carton plein association collects, cleans and sells discarded boxes. People in precarious situations recycle, deliver by bike and help move – gaining professional and life skills in the process.
It all began with Francis, a rag man who makes a living reusing and recycling things. He was peeved by the heaps of empty boxes that are dumped on the streets of Paris. “The yellow bins for paper and cardboard aren’t big enough for all the stuff that people throw out,” he says. “The city doesn’t have the resources to deal with the problem. There are some companies that take care of the problem, and it works out because the demand is there.” He and his friend Antoine Aumonier decided to collect part of these boxes to compact them into smaller bales and resell them.
They invested in a compacter. Yet the project was off to a rocky start: The machine cost several thousand euros, the boxes took up a lot of space, and the compacted bales didn’t sell well. “They also thought it was a pity to crush perfectly fine boxes”, says Hélène, a volunteer for the association that Francis and Antoine founded following their difficult launch. The project turned a corner: They now collected boxes from private citizens, associations and companies in order to clean and reuse them.
Reselling for reintegration
So now, 33 rue du Nord in Paris is home to the unusual store of the Carton plein (‘full box’) association. You can buy boxes here –– individually, if you just need to store some unused items, or in bulk for a major move. .
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