Pluvia’Tech, the start-up based in Bessan, is reinventing urban waste management

Yasmine Er-Rouyas et Antoine Revardeau sont les fondateurs de Pluvia’Tech Anaëlle Faure

La start-up héraultaise hébergée à la pépinière Gigamed à Bessan, s’attaque à la préservation de l’environnement marin avec des filets antidéchets innovants et écologiques.

Yasmine Er-Rouyas and Antoine Revardeau meet during their MBA Management International Business in Montpellier. It’s their shared passion for travel and their commitment to the planet that led to the creation of Pluvia’Tech. Their desire: to fight against marine pollution by limiting the infiltration of urban waste into waterways. "Our idea was to create an ecological filtering system to affix to the rain plates of cities because you should know that 80  of marine pollution comes from sources terrestrial", explains Yasmine. "We started to develop this project during our master's degree, during a Startup Challenge which allowed us to test and validate its potential." The young creators won third place out of four hundred and fifty during this national competition.

Anti-waste nets designed from oyster bags

With their diploma in hand, Yasmine and Antoine begin to develop their first prototype of a filter basket. "The main difficulty was that all the rain plates are different. We therefore needed an adaptable system."They consider different design solutions and then meet a designer who transforms oyster bags into backpacks. The concept is taking shape: recover dormant stocks of small mesh bags from local oyster farmers, wash them then give them a second life by transforming them into baskets. Yasmine and Antoine joined the Gigamed nursery at the same time and began to approach local communities. "During our master's degree, we benefited from the support of the mayor of Bessan who put us in touch with the communities of Hérault Méditerranée urban areas and the Thau basin."

A full-scale test on the territory

In June 2023, Pluvia Tech designs its first baskets and installs them at the end of the summer on the rainwater plates and drains of various municipalities around the Thau lagoon. Until March 2024, forty baskets are tested in real conditions in Bessan, Mèze, Balaruc-les-Bains, Frontignan and Sète. And the result is clear. Cigarette butts, plastic packaging, paper, dust, hair, leaves… More than six hundred-litre bags of macro-waste are collected during the test. “This is very positive, it promises even greater potential in the summer period and interesting prospects for reducing our ecological footprint.” Note that the recovered waste is then revalued by recycling specialists.

New innovative models

To go even further in the collection of urban waste, Pluvia’Tech has just developed, in partnership with Alionax, a solution that filters hydrocarbons such as gasoline or cooking oils. "This model can be particularly interesting in commercial or port areas." Another innovation: a connected version which detects the filling rate of the basket and sends alerts in the event of a fire or movement of the filter. "This year is rich in projects with for example around a hundred baskets to be set up in the most touristy areas of our region. We aspire to develop our territory in harmony with nature and also to raise awareness among future generations about environmental issues."

Dates and key figures

2020-2022: Start-up Challenge course
2022: Creation of the company and incubation within the Gigamed nursery & Bessan
2023: Design of the first Pluvia’Tech baskets
Result of waste collection on the first 40 baskets: 3,144 cigarette butts (one cigarette butt pollutes 500 liters of waste). water, this represents 1.5 million liters of water preserved), 700 pieces of paper and plastic waste, 10.6 kg of atmospheric waste and 6.3 kg of organic waste.
> Pluvia’Tech : pluviatech.com – contact@pluviatech.com