Greener tech: how Green_e wants to manufacture cables made for iPhone and made in France

Let’s take a detour in this series. Not only by Rennes, where Guillaume Bensi directs Green_e. After visiting some data center, watched the deployment of telecommunications networks, and discussed the virtues of renting smartphones, now let’s dig into… my bag of cables. Amid still-wrapped Lightning and USB-C cables tangled with antique terminated SCSI and ADB connectors, dozens of broken wires bear the marks of intense frustration. This is what Green_e wants to change, which aims to manufacture more sustainable cables in France, from the recycled remains of other cables.

When COP 21 opened its doors in 2015, Guillaume Bensi had already garnered more than ten years of experience in the design of accessories for electronic devices. “I realized that our materials were not recycled or recyclable”he explains, “I decided to hire an eco-design specialist and we started working on our first cables and chargers”. Green_e was born.

What is an “eco-designed” cable? “For starters, it’s a cable that doesn’t use PVC”declares Guillaume Bensi, “a really cheap material, but really not ecological”. Thermoplastic polymers soften when heated and harden while retaining their shape when cooled, a reversible ability that allows them to be recycled. By improving its resistance to ultraviolet and heat, additives alter the thermoplastic properties of PVC, more difficult to recycle.

“The moment it leaves the factory, a PVC cable becomes waste”, deplores the founder of Green_e by forcing the line. The prop maker prefers thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), “plastics without oxygen, and therefore naturally flame retardant, without additives”. These materials are more expensive, but can be molded like other thermoplastics, and are more easily recyclable than other elastomers.

However, manufacturers have every interest in playing the recycling card: “Recycled TPE costs 30 to 40% less than virgin TPE, since it suffices to grind the objects into flakes, which will go into the composition of new objects”. The recycling sector is structured, and bumpers become watering cans, shoe soles become pens… “Recycled material behaves like virgin material”adds Guillaume Bensi.

The flexibility of TPE offers a decisive advantage in cable design: “a TPE cable can withstand between 8,000 and 10,000 twists”, explains the founder of Green_e, twice as much as its PVC equivalent. The design matters as much, if not more, than the mechanical characteristics of the materials: “we have dimpled the inside of the connector, to promote twisting but prevent breakage, to prevent the wires from touching or the connector from breaking”.