ADEME and reuse: an overview of funding for businesses

ADEME (the French ecological transition agency) funds packaging reuse through several separate channels, and they do not all target the same companies or the same stages of a project. Some schemes are national, others are regional, and a third category reflects coordination with Citeo (the French packaging eco-organization) rather than funding of ADEME's own. Before putting an application together, it helps to know which scheme actually fits your project, and which one closed several months ago.

The national scheme for reusable industrial and commercial packaging

ADEME's main national call for projects in this field targets manufacturers developing reusable industrial and commercial packaging (EIC, emballages industriels et commerciaux) solutions, provided those solutions are both reusable and recyclable at end of life. It runs in two stages: phase 1 for submitting pre-proposals, then phase 2, open only to applicants selected at the end of the first phase, for submitting a full application. For the 2025 cycle, phase 1 ran from early March to early April, and phase 2, reserved for selected applicants, from late April to mid-July. At the time of writing, ADEME states on its official page that the call is closed and that the list of winners will be published at a later date.

This timing matters for any company planning to apply. Unlike a permanent scheme, this call for projects runs in waves, with a submission window that closes several months before results are published. Following the dedicated ADEME page ahead of a new cycle is therefore more effective than waiting for a broad announcement.

Direct support for packaging reuse

Alongside the call for projects, ADEME maintains a more general funding page titled “Aides au réemploi des emballages” (packaging reuse support), updated in January 2026. It targets reuse projects for industrial and commercial packaging, in a context explicitly presented as a transition period toward the new extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme for professional packaging (REP PRO). Its entry into force, originally set for July 1, 2026, has been postponed to January 1, 2027 (government announcement of July 28, 2026).

Eligible expenses cover three types of needs:

• feasibility studies, capped at €50,000 of eligible expenses;
• trials ahead of an investment, capped at €100,000;
• the investments themselves, with funding that depends on the project and the geographic area concerned.

A third-party directory of public funding mentions funding rates of up to 80% for studies and trials and 60% for investments, with a cap of €300,000 and applications accepted until December 31, 2026. These figures could not be confirmed directly on an official ADEME page at the time of writing, and we recommend checking them with ADEME before building a financing plan on that basis.

Regional calls for projects, often closed

ADEME has also run regional calls for projects on packaging reuse, notably in Normandy and Corsica. The Normandy call, run with local authorities, funded studies and trials up to 80% and investments up to 60%, with a final application deadline of May 27, 2024. The Corsica call, run with the Office de l'environnement de la Corse (Corsica's environment office) and ADEC (Corsica's economic development agency), targeted businesses, local authorities and associations with an economic activity. Both calls are now closed. Their existence shows that some ADEME regional offices can open local schemes separate from the national calendar, which makes direct contact with the relevant regional office worthwhile when a project has a strong local dimension.

Coordination with Citeo, not competition

ADEME and Citeo do not fund reuse independently of each other. The modulation rate Citeo uses to calculate its support for take-back costs is based partly on an ADEME study on the development potential of reuse, and the two organizations have in the past formalized a partnership to develop high-performing packaging reuse systems. For a company, this means a single project may fall under two different funding windows depending on the type of expense: the take-back costs of a loop that is already running fall more under Citeo, while industrial investment in production or washing equipment falls more naturally under ADEME.

Check before building an application

Amounts and timelines change from one cycle to the next, and several schemes mentioned here are closed at the time this article is published. ADEME's “Agir pour la transition” website remains the reference to check before any submission, with prior contact with the relevant regional office if needed.

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