^«My acting career has given me the privilege of traveling and opening myself up to the world. But it became impossible for me to ignore the environmental emergency and its collateral consequences. My surfing has only added another layer to this grim picture,” explains Samuel Le Bihan, who has witnessed the devastating effects of plastic on our oceans, particularly in Indonesia. Rather than simply becoming an ambassador for the fight against plastic pollution, he decided to take concrete action at his own level. This led to the creation of the Earthwake association in 2014, founded with colleagues from the humanitarian sector, such as François Danel, with whom he had worked at Action Against Hunger. Launched in 2020, the Earthwake company now serves as a tool for them to support innovation in the recycling of plastic waste, notably through a heat-based technical solution: pyrolysis.

To clean up pollution by creating an energy source

“We were looking for ways to recycle plastic waste in low- and middle-income countries. A friend, who was organizing a low-tech competition, told me about an inventor who had developed a pyrolysis process that could transform it into fuel,” recalls François Danel. In search of alternatives, he and Samuel Le Bihan traveled to the hills above Puget-Théniers: “At the time, we were both living in Paris and we came down there in the winter. It was snowing in the mountains and we were wondering what we were doing there; that’s when we met Christopher Costes at his small house. He lit the fire with a lighter and, half an hour later, diesel was flowing! It was incredible and we decided we were going to develop this process with him.” Then everything fell into place: TF1 showed in a report that the machine was working, the town of Puget-Théniers lent Christopher a space to work in, François managed Earthwake's financial structuring from Paris, and Samuel moved to Nice – to film the series Alex HugoThey are opening a second site in Jonquières in the Vaucluse, where teams are working to industrialize the technique and scale up.

Recreate shampoo bags and bottles

“Since plastic is made from petroleum, heating the waste to 450 degrees Celsius in the absence of oxygen returns it to its original state, and we can obtain diesel fuel,” explains François Danel. While the machine requires an initial burst of energy to start, it has the advantage of subsequently generating heat and being 80% self-sufficient. It produces a fuel usable in generators, which produce electricity. In areas where industry and tourism generate a lot of plastic waste and where significant quantities of hydrocarbons are imported, this technology would allow, rather than burying it, for the mobilization of some of this waste to contribute to recycling and local employment. Similarly, in France, pyrolysis oil could be used in the petrochemical industry, replacing fossil naphtha. Earthwake is currently working with a design office to obtain certification for its machine, the Chrysalis, with a view to marketing it in Martinique, Réunion, Mauritius, and to interested companies. Samuel Le Bihan concluded: "We see ourselves as small streams, each contributing to a larger river of solutions."