It’s a strange exchange that we witness that Wednesday evening, at the Zoumaï brasserie, Cours Gouffé, in the 6th arrondissement of Marseille. Fanny, her daughter and friends wait patiently while awaiting the result of the weighing of their overweight garbage bags. “Six kilos! It’s a great score, here are your pieces“, says Adrien Piquera, from the company Sauvage Méditerranée. At the bar counter, one of these green tokens can be exchanged for half a local beer or a fruit juice. “We clearly gain from the change“, laughs Fanny, who has just tested the very first wild currency.
Distantly inspired by local currencies, this wild currency is based on a simple principle: one kilo of waste, found during a collective trash collection organized by an association, gives the right to one or two coins made from recycled materials. Not just symbolic, this plastic token gives the right to products or discounts in around ten businesses with an eco-responsible approach in Marseille, without financial compensation.
A virtuous motto
And that’s not all, since each purchase or each exchange of this currency triggers a donation of five euros, taken from the pocket of Sauvage Méditerranée, to one of the partner associations such as 1 waste per day or Clean my calanques.
“Unlike the money we know, this one is virtuous, each action leads to another which allows us to support depollution actions“, summarizes Adrien Piquera, the coordinator of this new species of currency. With his colleagues, they hope to approach around twenty additional businesses by the end of the year. If the prospect of goat droppings the eye or a pot of free lavender honey may motivate some, the idea behind this unique initiative in France is to “bring together people who want to defend the environment“, we suggest at Sauvage.
Pickups in May and June
“We pass on good gestures and we collect waste which we can then transform“, adds one of the founders of Sauvage, which also uses plastic to make objects.”It’s a booster for our visibility, it’s true, but it shows that being in a process of reducing waste in consumption is not so inaccessible“, defends Léo Ballongue, a beekeeper partner of the currency.
The arguments hit home in Fanny’s tribe. The teenagers are getting restless, ready to go on another tour to flush out trash. “We realized that we didn’t look down while walking and that there were plenty of things to pick up. It’s nice to motivate yourself to do a good deed and to feel that you can be of use to something.“, enthuses little Judith.
To hope to recover your own recycled coin, stands will be held by Sauvage during collective collections in May and June.
The list of partner businesses
Wild Mediterranean3120 route d’Avignon, 13090 Aix-en-Provence and on sale at Flamants Verts, 1 piece = €5 in the store
The Green Flamingos6 rue Marengo, 1 piece = €5 in a zero waste workshop
Ziggy Flowers, 13 Rue Fontange, 13006 Marseille, 1 piece = 1 seed bomb
The Marseillaise Dairy86 Rue Sainte, 13007 Marseille, 1 piece + €10 = 1 goat cheese made in Marseille
Mimosa Bike Repair312 Rue d’Endoume, 13007 Marseille, 1 room = 50% on an inner tube, 2 rooms = an inner tube
Zoumaï Brewery7 Cr Gouffé, 13006 Marseille, 1 piece = 1 half of local beer brewed on site
The Peasantry102 Rue Emile Zola, 13009 Marseille, 1 piece = 1 BAAM bar
Zero Waste Marseille86 Rue Louis Grobet, 13001 Marseille, 1 room = Zero Waste training
At the ProducersLe Jardin du Pays d’Aubagne, 3 82 Av. de Mazargues, 13008 Marseille, 1 piece = 1 pot of lavender honey
Enjoy, aperitif and picnic21 Grand Rue, 13002 Marseille, 1 piece = 5% reduction on a picnic basket
More details and information on sauvage-med.fr/entreprises-sauvage/
