Federating and professionalizing the reuse sector is crucial to its long-term development.
Our missions
Unify and Enhance Expertise
400+ RCUBE partners and members
Bringing the players to the table
Creation and management of a network ⇒ more than 400 members and partners who share best practices, help each other and collaborate via Commissions, Working Groups, meetings and events.
Regional network development ⇒ Beyond Paris, Rcube has offices in the Hauts de France (Lille, Bethunes...) and the Grand Ouest (Nantes, Angers, Bordeaux, Vannes, Brest, ...).
Setting standards for the sector
The example of Label RecQ: a quality label dedicated to refurbished products initiated by Rcube
💸The French are buying more and more second-hand products. All sectors are concerned, with an explosion in furniture, smartphones and clothing.
However, not all second-hand products are created equal.
In particular, reconditioned products, i.e. products that have normally been checked by professionals to ensure they are in good working order, have very different levels of quality, safety and compliance with environmental standards.
In May 2020, the Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes (DGCCRF) noted the inadequacy of the information provided to consumers by almost 50% of professionals, as well as breaches of the provisions of the French Consumer Code, particularly with regard to warranties, and the difficulty for consumers to know the actual condition of the appliance.
🏷️ With this in mind, the RCUBE Federation has launched a project to create a quality label dedicated to refurbished products.
The " Refurbishment de Qualité" or RECQ label responds to the current needs of the second-hand market to guide buyers towards quality second-hand goods, from a product, environmental and social point of view.
Since 2016, the RECQ label therefore aims to:
- Inform buyers about the quality and safety of the used goods they are considering, 🛡️
- Promote the reuse of products that are still functional but are still too often landfilled or recycled, ♻️
- Professionalize the reuse sector, by defining and maintaining quality standards that everyone agrees on. 👔
Developing and supporting the ecosystem
🌐 Setting up a Pilot Incubator program for Reuse, Repair and Refurbishment, the ReUSE.LAB ⇒ Unique support to develop your entrepreneurial project in the fields of Reuse, Repair and Refurbishment.
Objectives
- 🚀 Supporting the creation, development and acceleration of companies specializing in reuse.
- 🏢 Developing and industrializing the reuse sector
- 📈 Training and supporting the professionalization of project managers
A selection based on strict criteria...
- ⚡ Innovation quality
- ♻️ Economic, social and environmental impact
- 🤝 Founders' entrepreneurial stance and motivation
- 💬 Value proposition and pitch
Training and workshops with experts ⇒ support for specific projects and contacts with experts.
Inventory and mapping ⇒ carrying out audits and inventories to support our members in their development.
STRUCTURE
Represent the sector on committees
| INSTANCES | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| CIFREP
Inter-Sector EPR Commission |
Appointment by Prime Minister
Administrative Commission whose secretariat is managed by the DGPR de management of recycling channels : decrees, specifications and approvals for eco-organizations |
| CNEC National Council for the Circular Economy |
Appointment by Minister for the Environment
Representative council of stakeholders to advise and study the implementation of the Circular Economy in France |
| ADEME Observatory Reuse | Leading member of the Steering Committee and member of the Working Groups |
| PRIVATE COPY COMMISSION | Industrial voting member (1 vote out of 24) |
| CUSTOMS working group | Participation in collaborative work between Customs and trade federations |
| DGPR working groups (graphic paper, etc.) | Participation in work managed by the Risk Prevention and Reduction Division (Direction Générale de la Prévention et de la Réduction des Risques) |
| DGE working group on marketplaces regulation | Direction Générale des Entreprises to draw up a charter of best practices for marketplaces and refurbishers distributing their products online. |
| ACT FOR IMPACT |
Label Act for Impact launched by BNP Paribas to support companies in developing innovative impact solutions |
DEMOCRATIZING AND RAISING AWARENESS
Organizing major events around the Reuse
Salon du vrac et du réemploi
https://salonduvracetdureemploi.com/
In addition to its international dimension, this 6th edition will welcome the Reuse Village for the first time, in collaboration with the Rcube federation. Come and discover the players involved in repair, reuse and re-employment.
Assises du réemploi
Organization of a nationwide event open to all for ...
- 🤝 Building a first version of the Reuse Master Plan
- Discuss development prospects for the reuse sector
- List the obstacles to reuse
- Identify available and required deposits by type of channel
- Federate players in the reuse and repair sector and support impact project leaders in their economic development.
- Discuss and propose solutions to develop the reuse and repair sector
- 🔎Definingthe sector's structuring concepts (terminology, cosmology, etc.) - via a Scientific Congress: publication of papers, presentation of studies in progress
- 👥 Raise awareness and train stakeholders in the sector's challenges (consumers, students, teachers, researchers, buyers, legislators, firms, suppliers).
- 💬 Present the regulatory texts (currently under construction) and discuss how they will be implemented in EPR channels.
- 📖 Update the White Paper with legislative proposals
- 🤖 Present innovations and proposals by sector: entrepreneurial pitches
- ⚙️ Organization and presentation of technical workshops to find out about the various training courses available.
- 💡 Innovation exhibition space, presentation of players
- 💻 Networking Area
Podcasts
Development of a podcast series featuring recycling companies.
Objectives :
- Enhancing the value of Reuse
- Inspire and Raise Awareness
- Community commitment
- Visibility
Would you like to be interviewed for an episode? We'd love to hear from you!
The RECQ Quality Label: Refurbishment
The RECQ label supported by RCUBE.org is the 1st European label for second-hand products, guaranteeing their quality.
The label is based on a set of criteria to be met by collection, reconditioning and distribution professionals.
These specifications are the fruit of consultation with all players in the reuse sector, whether or not they are members of RCUBE.
The label applies to a very wide range of products. It currently covers computers (portable and fixed), smartphones, car tires and large industrial equipment. By 2024/2025, further developments are planned to include other product families, such as bicycles, household appliances, DIY items and toys.
Why this label? In 2019, the Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes (DGCCRF) inspected 113 establishments and found shortcomings in almost 50% of them.
This standard offers guarantees that go well beyond the regulations: traceability in the reconditioning process, providing transparency on the actual state of the product and the operations carried out, compliance with the hierarchy of waste treatment methods, technical guarantee for a period at least equal to that stipulated by the regulations, existence of an after-sales service, product conformity via CE marking, compliance with various regulations (tax, consumer code, AGEC law, etc.).
Specific additional criteria may vary based on the product type. For products like computers and mobile phones, aspects such as the thoroughness of the data deletion process and the state of essential components (e.g., memory cards, batteries) are evaluated in relation to preset standards.
More than 20 structures have already been awarded the label, and many more are in the process of being certified in France and Europe.
Compliance with the specifications is assessed by an external certification body. Dekra Certification, which contributed to the project, has been appointed for a 3-year period to carry out these assessments. More information on the DEKRA web page.