Next time, before throwing a plastic bottle – in the yellow bin – think about it, keep the cap and give it to the association “The Corks of Hugo”. It was created by Stéphanie Chenevière, a resident of Sacquenay in Côte-d’Or, close to Peutgey. When her son Hugo died at the age of 9 in the summer of 2020 from a brain tumor, she decided to continue her collection of caps started during her illness. Thanks to a strong mobilization on social networks, at the end of December 2021, there are 350 collection points in Côte-d’Or, but also in Haute-Saône, in Jura or in Doubs.
350 collection points … and nearly 20 tonnes collected in 2021
Once collected, the corks are sorted in an old garage of 600 square meters. Two sorting tables were made by Stéphanie Chenevière’s father. A friend, a potato farmer, lent them a hopper – a device that allows the caps to be poured out. Every week, on Wednesday, around ten volunteers register on Facebook and come to help, to separate plastic from cork, metal and other materials.
Companies provide transportation, and the caps are then sold to a recycling company and turned into bins. Each tonne brings in 390 euros. In 2019, when she started collecting with her son Hugo, Stéphanie Chenevière had collected five tonnes of corks. Then eight tonnes in 2020 … and nearly 20 tonnes in 2021. She also hopes to achieve them by January 1, 2022, and sets a target of 25 tonnes for next year.
For the benefit of hospitalized children
33 tonnes collected since 2019, or 12,870 euros collected. What will become of this sum? “For the moment, it is not used, with the Covid we have not put things in place, answers Stéphanie Chenevière. Normally, this is to improve the comfort of children hospitalized in the CHU de Dijon“. For now, nothing has been done: “We asked them for a project, they offered us one, but it was not what we expected. It is not finalized”. For example, she does not want furniture for a doctor’s waiting room in the hospital, but rather imagines a show or gifts for hospitalized children.
