Wood and Textile
By taking textile and wood waste as a working medium, the Atelier D'éco Solidaire seeks to raise awareness about the management of the latter and their impact on the environment and on humans. Indeed, the textile industry is the second most polluting, and is responsible for about 20% of the world's water pollution. Moreover, the rise of fast fashion and over-consumption in Western countries is accompanied by increasing labour exploitation. In Asian countries such as Bangladesh, but also in Africa and Eastern Europe.
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As for the wood industry, it is responsible for deforestation, leading to a massive destruction of biodiversity, as well as for the emission of more than 6 gigatons of CO2, i.e. about 20% of the annual global CO2 emissions.
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Plastic and Food
The scourge of our society: plastic. Far from being fantastic, plastic, especially if it is single-use, is everywhere, in all forms. It is estimated that by 2050 there will be more plastic waste than fish in the ocean. And did you know that the average consumer ingests the equivalent of a credit card in plastic every week? ​
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If we distributed food before it ends up in the rubbish bins of industrialised countries, we could eradicate world hunger. Indeed, 30% to 50% of the food produced worldwide is not even consumed, and ends up in the garbage. As far as household waste is concerned, more than a third of the total is organic, and therefore compostable. Unfortunately, 70% of this waste is not sorted.
Electronic and paper
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In a technology-hungry world, the question of how to manage electronic waste arises. The proliferation of e-waste results in large volumes of complex waste, increased energy consumption and the release of harmful materials into the environment. This is in addition to the extraction of materials and rare earths required for their manufacture.
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​Although less important, the paper industry is still polluting. Indeed, deforestation remains a major problem, and paper production requires 14% of wood in sawmills.
Beyond deforestation, the paper industry is harmful to the soil, notably because of the chemicals used in their manufacture (e.g. bleaching).