AMELIOR Association
Déniché pour vous - 117 file
septembre 2022
Réseau des collectivités Territoriales pour une Economie Solidaire (RTES)
The « Déniché pour Vous » files have been developed by the RTES. They present local initiatives in France, their environment, their purpose and their development, with particular emphasis on the role of local authorities. Whether the initiatives focus on the energy transition, shared spaces, the circular economy, food, sustainable mobility, immigration or digital technology, these case studies offer an instructive immersion in the field of territorial social innovation.
AMELIOR, with a team of around ten volunteers, works to organise and manage markets, collect items from businesses and individuals, run a shop, provide advice and expertise to partners and institutions, and recover unsold items from garage sales.
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The AMELIOR association was founded in 2012 to federate the work of biffin.e.s and recyclers. Biffin.e.s or puciers, chiffonniers, ferrailleurs are people engaged in the business of recovering and reselling second-hand objects from personal possessions, private exchanges and donations, and waste sorting. AMELIOR was founded by biffiners and citizens of Paris and the Ile-de-France region in response to the lack of legal and dignified means of practising biffinism in Paris and its inner suburbs.
AMELIOR’s aim is to encourage the emergence and organisation of local economy markets based on waste recovery, recycling and reclamation; to contribute to the professional, economic and social integration of waste pickers and recyclers; to develop educational initiatives around selective sorting, recycling and the circular economy; to raise awareness of the individual subsistence economic activity based on waste recovery in urban areas; and to secure recognition of the right to waste picking.
In practical terms, AMELIOR organises biffin markets and offers each biffin member an individual card enabling them to establish legal commercial relations with other members. The association also offers support to its members: permanent social assistance and institutional mediation for the biffins and their families, provision of association premises and technical resources (IT, DIY, sewing, etc.). The association works with recycling centres to organise collections at the foot of buildings in Est Ensemble’s urban policy neighbourhoods. It also organises collections of unsold items from garage sales.
The association, which is based in Montreuil, has had a permit from the city since March 2013, obtained under the « Sustainable City » call for projects, to organise a biffins market once a month, then twice a month from 2020. AMELIOR also initiated the organisation of monthly recycling markets on the Grands-Voisins site from 2016 to 2018. In 2019, AMELIOR won SYCTOM’s call for projects to set up a temporary recycling centre on the Mora le Bronze site in Bobigny. For 3 years, SYCTOM is making the 2,500m² site available to AMELIOR so that the association can carry out its various activities there: sorting areas from the various collection networks (fabrics, books, objects, wood, metal) to direct them either towards their recovery by recycling operators, or towards a sales area on site. Some items can be repaired on site. The base includes offices, changing rooms and toilets. The site also includes a café and a fab lab. From Monday to Saturday, AMELIOR organises a ressourcerie recyclerie and selective collection rounds for re-used goods.
Business model
Beneficiaries are paid through their sales at the markets. The association employs 10 people, 8 of them full-time. One of them is project manager for the city of Marseille.
Role of local authorities
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Authorisation from Montreuil town council to organise fortnightly recycling markets. - AMELIOR, winner of Est Ensemble’s « zero waste » award (2020 call for projects), subsidised to the tune of €13,600 for a project to collect waste at the foot of buildings and raise awareness of reuse. - Support from SYCTOM: provision of the site, operating and investment subsidy for installation on the Bobigny site from December 2019 to March 2023, totalling €375,000. - Support from the Ile-de-France Region: 10% of the investment costs for the recycling centre in Bobigny.
Key figures
AMELIOR’s activities provide work for around 700 shop assistants in the Ile-de-France region, many of whom are in very precarious situations. Each market helps to reuse/recycle 8 tonnes of goods and merchandise. By 2021, AMELIOR will have recycled and reused around 1,200 tonnes.