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Paris Olympics: Games equipment heads for ‘second life’ after the sporting extravaganza

  • Paris promised to do things differently and sustainably, including using temporary venues and equipment that can be recycled or repurposed

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The 14,000 mattresses made from recycled plastic used in the Olympic Village will go to the French army, while their cardboard bases will be recycled. Photo: Reuters

The stands have fallen quiet and the Athletes’ Village is emptying. What happens to all the equipment now the 2024 Paris Olympics are over?

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Organisers have plans for it.

Over decades, the Olympics have forged a reputation for monumental waste, with whole stadiums sometimes left to rot once the two-week sporting extravaganza moves on.

But Paris promised to do things differently, using temporary venues to cut construction work but also forcing suppliers to think about a “second life” for the equipment they supplied, from tennis balls to the sand for the beach volleyball.

Georgina Grenon, the Paris Olympics’ director of sustainability, says 90 per cent of the six million items used have “second-life” plans. Photo: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Georgina Grenon, the Paris Olympics’ director of sustainability, says 90 per cent of the six million items used have “second-life” plans. Photo: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

“Before we ordered anything, we thought about what this thing is going to become afterwards,” Paris 2024 sustainability director Georgina Grenon told AFP in an interview last week.

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