PRESS RELEASE
28 September 2022
Public thematic report
PREVENTION,
COLLECTION
AND
TREATMENT
OF
HOUSEHOLD WASTE: AN AMBITION TO BE REALISED
The health crisis has recently reminded us that waste management, and in particular the
public waste management service (SPGD), is an essential service provided by municipalities
or their groupings. The wide variety of materials and objects that make up the 39 million
tonnes of household and similar waste (HSW) produced in France makes its collection and
treatment both more complex and more costly than that of other waste - even though the
volume of other waste is larger. With annual expenditure on HSW management of €10.9
billion, i.e. 61.5% of total waste management expenditure, the financial stakes are high. Ten
years after the publication of a previous report that pointed out shortcomings, the financial
courts felt it would be useful to re-examine the relevance and efficiency of the HSW
prevention and management policy. The report published today is based on a national and
international analysis by the Court of Accounts and 51 audits by the Regional and Territorial
Chambers of Accounts.
Waste reduction hampered by insufficient management
Although the volume of household waste produced per capita in France has tended to stabilise
over the last decade, it remains at a high level, both in terms of its overall quantity (583 kg of
HSW per capita in 2019), and its unsorted portion - representing 249 kg of residual household
waste (RHW) per capita. With regard to the main indicators (quantity of waste produced,
recycling, disposal), France is slightly below the European average and even further behind the
most advanced countries (Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries).
However, 80% of RHW collected in France could be recovered according to its type if it were
sorted by users and directed towards its specific treatment stream, in particular organic waste
and waste covered by an extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme. As the financial courts
already pointed out in 2011, waste prevention and management require first and foremost the
collection and presentation of relevant data in order to guide public action. However, the
current regulatory indicators, of which there are too many and which are published too late by
Ademe on the basis of incomplete local data, are not able to assume this role. In order to
mobilise citizens, businesses, and local and regional authorities around shared priorities and to
accelerate the implementation of national objectives, the indicators should be refocused on
summary management charts bringing together the main useful data. Although it accounts for
12% of all waste produced in France, HSW accounts for 61.5% of expenditure, which has
increased by 4.3% per year over the last 20 years. As regards the portion financed by the user,
the financial courts consider that the portion made up by the incentive-based charge is
insufficient. While it was supposed to cover 15 million people in 2020, it now only reaches
6 million. The local authorities responsible for implementing this incentive-based charge -
which has nonetheless shown its effectiveness in reducing the tonnage collected and
management costs - criticise it for being complex, costly to manage and unsuited to the
objectives pursued.
The operational mechanism: a transformation to be accelerated towards the circular
economy
Prevention remains marginal in the actions of eco-organisations [not-for-profit waste collection
and management entities] and local authorities - the two main stakeholders responsible for
waste management. As the first to be affected, businesses cannot be exempted from this
responsibility by their financial contribution alone: they must also reduce the materials placed
on the market (less packaging, better eco-design of products, reduction of volumes). On the
part of local authorities, the actions -
often limited to raising citizens’ awareness of sorting
practices - affect too small a part of the population. However, the range of more operational
local prevention actions could be broadened, including concrete forms of exemplary waste
reduction such as combatting food waste. With investments in modernisation and upgrading
to comply with standards, the continuous increase in expenditure on treatment (40% of total
public service expenditure) will continue. In addition, plastic waste, which has a significant
negative impact on the environment, poses particular treatment challenges. Only three
quarters of the planned roll out for its collection in yellow bins has been achieved in 2022. To
reduce its environmental impact, many funding programmes rolled out by central government
since 2021 (including the recovery plan) aim to strengthen the recycling sector. The financial
courts consider that, in order to make all these actions coherent, the national plan should
include a section devoted to priority industrial issues, in particular plastics processing and
energy recovery. Energy recovery from non-recycled waste, through the modernisation of
facilities, is the most credible alternative to landfill. Although this is declining, it still accounts
for too large a proportion (21% of waste treatment) compared to the most efficient European
countries in terms of recycling.
Read the report
PRESS CONTACTS:
Emmanuel Kessler
◼
Director of Communications
◼
T
+33 (0)1 42 98 55 62
◼
+33 (0)6 62 48 07 81
◼
emmanuel.kessler@ccomptes.fr
Julie Poissier
◼
Head of Press Relations
◼
T
+33 (0)1 42 98 97 43
◼
+33 (0)6 87 36 52 21
◼
julie.poissier@ccomptes.fr
@Courdescomptes
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