TRIFAB across Europe and the world

Born in France

TRIFAB was formulated in France, where intercommunal authorities run a dense network of recycling centres (déchetteries) and where reuse centres (ressourceries, recycleries) and fablabs have grown for years — often side by side, rarely connected. The manifesto by D. Dambreville proposes to connect them, starting with a pilot site studied within twelve months. It is written in French and published under a CC BY 4.0 licence, so that anyone, anywhere, can translate and adapt it.

France also offers a favourable legal framework: its 2020 anti-waste law for a circular economy (known as the AGEC law) organised, among other things, funds dedicated to reuse and to repair within extended producer responsibility schemes. Conditions and amounts change: check them when building a project.

The European context

TRIFAB fits naturally into European waste and product policy:

• The waste hierarchy. Article 4 of the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) ranks options in order: prevention, preparing for re-use, recycling, other recovery, disposal. TRIFAB works on the first rungs — preparing for re-use, repair and local transformation — before recycling.
• The right to repair. Directive (EU) 2024/1799 on common rules promoting the repair of goods entered into force in July 2024; Member States had until 31 July 2026 to transpose it. It strengthens consumers' access to repair and provides for a European online repair platform. A fablab attached to a reuse centre is a natural local repair actor.
• Textiles. The targeted revision of the Waste Framework Directive, in force since October 2025, requires every Member State to set up extended producer responsibility for textiles and footwear — with reuse and repair among its aims.
• The scale of the challenge. According to Eurostat, the EU generated 517 kg of municipal waste per person in 2024, of which 48.1 % was recycled.

Sources: Directive 2008/98/EC · Directive (EU) 2024/1799 · Eurostat, municipal waste statistics. Legal frameworks evolve: always check the current national transposition.

One model, many territories

The model stays common; the achievements differ. Each territory adapts TRIFAB to its own resources:

From one site to a network

A successful pilot produces what the next local authority needs: specifications, list of accepted materials, sorting protocol, internal rules, governance model, standard budget, equipment list, training programme, dashboard and duplication method.

Over time, several sites work as a network: collection points, multiple reuse centres and fablabs, a shared catalogue of materials, bookings, pooled workshops and training, common indicators. The territory no longer has only a waste-treatment chain, but a local infrastructure of matter, reuse, repair and fabrication.

Beyond Europe

Nothing in TRIFAB is specific to one country. Any territory that already collects bulky waste at identified points — whatever their local name — can add a reuse link and a making link, and measure the results. The legal forms, funding and safety rules change from one country to another; the logic of the chain does not: collect, sort, repair and make, document, share.

Open by design

A machine that is not documented remains a local achievement; a documented machine — plans, software, procedures, bill of materials — becomes a reproducible project. TRIFAB encourages every site to publish what it learns, so that the knowledge circulates as freely as the material. Our pillar article on 25 open-source projects for a TRIFAB shows what this can look like.