ENVIRONMENT
- 19 / 09 / 2022
The World Clean Up Day 2022, at Cofidis Group in France, is all year long with TchaoMégot!
Did you know that? Every year, 25,000 tons of cigarette butts are thrown away in France, the equivalent of the weight of 3 Eiffel Towers. With this in mind, and in response to the risks that this act of incivility can generate for biodiversity, Cofidis Group in France has taken up the challenge, on the occasion of World Clean Up Day, to recycle 700 liters of cigarette butts into thermal insulation with TchaoMégot before the 2023 edition of World Clean Up Day.
The challenge: 700 liters of cigarette butts recycled into down jackets in 1 year!
The World Clean Up Day is the global day of cleaning up the planet which takes place everywhere in France and in the world on September 17. All waste is concerned, including and especially cigarette butts! Cofidis Group has decided to use the 2 cigarette butt collectors installed on campus to challenge its 2,500 French employees to collect 700 liters in one year. The objective is twofold:
- to recycle them with TchaoMégot to transform them into thermal insulation for the building and textile industries.
- to donate a down jacket for every 100 liters recycled to an association that helps the homeless.
Recently set up on campus thanks to the intrapreneurial approach of a Cofidis France employee and in collaboration with TchaoMégot, these two collection points are an alternative to incineration. After being transported in fireproof containers, the butts are cleaned without water or toxic products in order to be recycled as thermal insulation. This World Clean Up Day challenge is an opportunity for the group to highlight this virtuous approach by an employee and to give it a boost.
3200 recycled cigarette butts
are needed to make
a down jacket
An awareness action to make a hit!
To take up the challenge, an awareness-raising action was organized among the employees of our 4 French subsidiaries, Cofidis France, Créatis, Monabanq and Synergie, with the distribution of recycled plastic bottles and gloves so that they could pick up cigarette butts from their environment and deposit them in the collection points. All ashtrays on campus are also collected by our internal services to increase the gauge. Like the battery collection, these TchaoMégot stations offer a real alternative to throwing butts in the garbage for our employees who smoke. The employees were quick to roll up their sleeves on the first day of the challenge to collect the butts en masse and fill their bottles.
To maintain the dynamic, throughout the year, everyone is invited to post a selfie with their bottle full of butts on the company’s social network. In addition, an assessment will be regularly communicated to appreciate the progress of the challenge with the weight of collected butts, the number of m3 of water saved, the number of CO2 not generated and the weight of insulation created.
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