REPORTING. After Paris 2024, the furniture from the Olympic village donated to the Emmaüs association

Now that the Olympic village has been emptied of all its athletes, 54,000 pieces will be donated to Emmaüs. A special system has been put in place.

This was one of the Paris 2024 commitments: to give a second life to all the furniture used for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Here is already a first example with this massive donation to Emmaüs: 54,000 pieces which were in the Olympic athletes’ village, in Saint-Denis, and which are now intended for the association. The last athletes left the premises on September 10 and since then, it has been a big move, with real assembly line work taking place.

The 800 mobilized handlers work under the direction of Laurent Michaud, the director. “We remove the beds, the sofas, the coffee tables, the bedside tables. We have to be coordinated and organized despite an extremely short time.”

They have six weeks to clear everything before the keys are returned to Solideo, the delivery company for the Olympic works. And all this material must be transported and stored. This is the mission of the CMA CGM foundation which has made 400 trucks available. “It’s a three-year commitment because Emmaüs did not have the capacity to receive so much equipment at once,” explains Marion Dupuis, head of CMA CGM. We will carry out transport on a very regular basis, every week, every month.”

The furniture then arrives with families on the street who have access to permanent housing for the first time, or it is resold in one of the 112 Emmaüs centers throughout France. For a bed, for example, you need to count a “thirty euros, a table around 12 or 15 euros, an armchair around twenty”explains Gwendoline Lafarge, manager at Emmaüs.

Products “quality products that have been designed, created for the event and used by athletes. Therefore with highly developed ergonomics.” These 54,000 pieces represent the equivalent of one to two years of donations for the Emmaüs association.