Red card. In its “alert report” published in June 2023, the European Commission did not have harsh enough words to pin France on the management of its waste. And for good reason ! In 2020, it only had a recycling rate of 42% of its municipal waste (including household waste and waste from commercial activities), far from the European objectives set at 55% for 2025. Worrying, when we know that this rate was around 45% in 2018… It therefore remains lagging behind at European level, a poor performer compared to champions like Austria and the Netherlands who are lagging at 57%.
A clearly increasing recycling rate
However, these figures should be taken with a grain of salt: “This is a new calculation method imposed by the European Commission, while France bases itself on that established by the Environment and Environmental Management Agency energy (Ademe)”, explains Nicolas Furet, director of 3R performance (reduction, reuse and recycling) at Citeo. He thus mentions a recycling rate of household packaging which increased in 2021, reaching 72%. Just like that of papers placed on the market (62%). Enough to avoid the emission of 2.2 million tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of 16,000 Paris – New York flights!
Certain sectors have managed to do well, such as glass, which displays “a rate of 80%, above the European average (76%)!” welcomes Sylvain Hourquebie, president of Federec Verre. And for good reason ! France has benefited from a dedicated recycling stream for years. “For this to work, you first need a good collection,” he explains. However, we combine the advantages: glassmakers who crisscross the territory with a site in each municipality, a network of glass bubbles and collection specialists, like Mineris which monopolizes 50% of the market, without forgetting, finally, multiple glass factories. recycling. A network synonymous with proximity which induces a circular economy, with a reduction in CO2 emissions due to transport. “In 2022, no less than 2.5 million tonnes were collected, and 3 million tonnes recycled were produced,” explains Sylvain Hourquebie. Not enough. “If we want to achieve a recycling rate of 90%, we will have to take care of an additional 200,000 tonnes,” he estimates.
As far as plastic is concerned, the picture is getting darker, with huge delays in terms of packaging in particular, the recycling rate of which only amounts to… 30% (Ademe). The fact remains that, “in 2021, the recycled volume has never been so high, with one million tonnes of waste!” rejoices Christophe Viant, president of Federec Plastiques. An increase of 13% in one year, which can be explained by the explosion in demand after the shortages due to Covid, legislative encouragement to integrate reused materials in the manufacture of products and the progression of selective collection.
The “producer pays” principle
With the Anti-waste law for a circular economy (Agec) adopted in 2020, the sector was structured between the State, Regions and Cities, and new rules were adopted, such as the “producer pays” principle, or the extension of sorting instructions, which makes it possible to broaden the range of waste recovered while encouraging residents to sort better and more. “This remains insufficient,” recognizes Christophe Viant. Because at this pace we will neither be able to meet the challenges set by the Paris agreements nor achieve the European objectives in this area. “We must therefore change gear and use all the means at our disposal, for all materials,” encourages Nicolas Furet.
First lever implemented: waste incentive pricing, a local tax which encourages consumers to sort as much household packaging and paper as possible. “Affecting 6.5 million inhabitants in 2022, it made it possible to reduce the quantity of residual household waste by 41% and to increase the collection of recyclables accordingly,” continues the 3R performance director, citing a recent report from the Court of Auditors. His ambition: to deploy it across the entire territory so that it concerns 12 million inhabitants in 2030, “which will not however make it possible to achieve the objectives set for this horizon”, he warns.
Reduction on bottle deposit
At Citeo, we are therefore working on other systems, such as deposits for the reuse of glass bottles or the recycling of plastic bottles. “According to a study carried out in different European countries, this would be the only way to achieve a collection level greater than 90% by 2030, particularly for PET bottles,” explains Nicolas Furet. This system, which has proven its effectiveness, for example in Germany, is not unanimous on this side of the Rhine. While Federec asks the government to abandon this “false deposit” project, the mayors and representatives of intercommunities, responsible for the management of household waste, denounce an “anti-ecological” measure, which would disrupt the public system of collection without particularly improving that of plastic. “The objective set by law for the recycling of plastic bottles, namely 77% in 2025, can be achieved without deposits, as shown by the Breton example,” estimates Federec, which has issued 14 proposals. Among them: the continued modernization of existing centers or the acceleration of the development of sorting and recycling of packaging away from home (public spaces, transport, etc.). While the idea of chemical recycling is gaining ground, with the announcement of new units on orphan deposits (potentially polluted and without an owner).
To achieve 100% recyclability of plastics by 2025, Citeo is also working on the development of four new recycling sectors around PS (yogurt pots), PET pots and trays, colored or opaque PET bottles. , PE and PP films (packs of water bottles, sachets, pastes, etc.). “The first two will become operational by 2025, with 108,000 tonnes of additional packaging reused per year, promises Nicolas Furet. Other materials will be concerned, thanks to the extension of the ‘extended producer responsibility’ model (REP) to other sectors.” The principle is simple: whoever manufactures or distributes a product must take responsibility for its end of life. A punishment for industrialists? Not quite: “We invest 50 million euros per year to support the development of large-scale reuse,” he warns. Slowly but surely…
Biowaste, a resource that is so little valued
It is a green gold mine which still remains unexploited… While the annual deposit of biowaste (food and green) is estimated at 30 million tonnes in France, the industrial waste management sector only exploits 4 .5 to 5.5 million tonnes, according to Federec. When it is neither sorted nor collected, this waste ends up crushed… But the situation should change under the influence of regulations – the law relating to the energy transition for green growth (2015), which plans to generalize sorting at source biowaste by the end of the year, to the Agec law (2020), which aims to increase the share of waste subject to recovery.
The benefits are not negligible: they can be used as fertilizer, or to produce biogas after a methanization process (fermentation of organic matter). In France, 1.5 million tonnes of bio-waste were used to make it. And if the entire annual deposit was converted into biomethane, nearly 22 terawatt hours could be generated. A new alternative to fossil fuels?