[     News listing ](/en/news "  News listing")

 21 Sep. 2017 



 

 

 

In 2016, the first "Ecogeste collèges" collected 1,475,000 obsolete textbooks. This year, with the change in language, life and earth sciences, and physics and chemistry curricula from class 5 to class 3, Veolia and Editions Belin could collect as many as 10 million obsolete books. They could then be recycled to make 16 million exercise books with 96 large format pages. The profits from the operation will go to [UNICEF](https://www.unicef.org/) to finance actions for children and education (in 2016, the profits funded the production of 17,000 exercise books).

## Middle schools at the heart of a [circular economy](http://www.parlonsensembleduclimat.veolia.com/en/blog-categories/economie-circulaire) loop

Veolia will collect worn textbooks and used paper directly from participating establishments. The Group will sort and transform them into recycled raw materials, which will then feed the local paper mills to produce recycled paper.

## Key figures for "Ecogeste colleges" 2016



 

 

 



**1,475,000** books recycled



 

 

 

 

 

 



 

**314,000**   
participants in 600 middle schools



 

 

 

 

 

 



 

**1,000** tonnes of books collected



 

 

 

 

 

 



 

**775** tonnes of recycled paper, equivalent to 2.4 million 96-page large format exercise book