06/16/2026
"“All of this would have ended up in the trashcan,” says Martin Herbelin, the 35-year-old co-founder of the company, shaking his head. Behind him a steady flow of clients zip in and out of one of Demain’s three stores in Paris.
Herein lies the anti-waste concept behind Demain, the French word for “tomorrow.” The company, launched in 2023, collects the day’s unsold bread and pastries from a network of more than 20 partner artisan bakeries in the French capital and resells them the next day with huge reductions, often half of the initial price. That means there are delicious artisanal croissants on sale for just €0.50; a thick loaf of pain de campagne sourdough priced at just €4, down from €8; traditional baguettes for less than a euro. About 50,000 of these eminently edible goods are saved from the trash every month.
They could perhaps be described as Schrödinger’s pastries, simultaneously from the past — yesterday — and a zero-waste future that Demain is helping to pioneer in Paris.
“There’s so much value in what we are throwing away,” adds Herbelin. “We need to change people’s mindsets. Once you do, it could have a huge impact.”
Globally, approximately a third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. In Europe, mountains of food are wasted every year — 58 million metric tons, the equivalent of 129 kilograms per person. Similarly, Americans throw away nearly 60 million tons of food every year, almost 40 percent of the entire U.S. food supply."
By repurposing and reselling day-old baked goods on the cheap, a unique Paris bakery is taking a bite out of food waste.
