FOCUS – Since 1^st June 2016, the 589,000 inha­bi­tants from the 195 com­munes in sou­thern Isère (or 48 per cent of the department’s popu­la­tion) can throw all their plas­tic packa­ging in the green bin. Objective : to sim­plify the ges­ture of waste sor­ting for users, and gene­ra­lize the recy­cling of plas­tic packa­ging across France by 2022, in the context of the energy tran­si­tion law.

Packaging in the Athanor sor­ting centre. © Alexandra Moullec

Into which rub­bish bin does one throw the yog­hurt pots, food trays and plas­tic bags ? Everyone has expe­rien­ced this moment of doubt in front of their green bin, at least once… At last, this is just a bad memory.

The sor­ting ins­truc­tions have been sim­pli­fied : all plas­tic packa­ging, without excep­tion, bag free, empty, unwa­shed and not cram­med full, can be thrown out toge­ther. The ini­tia­tive of seve­ral com­mu­ni­ties that won the call for pro­jects, laun­ched by Eco-embal­lages, last September.

The win­ners ? Grenoble-Alpes Métropole, the Community of Communes of Grésivaudan, Matheysine, Pays de Corps and the Valbonnais val­leys, as well as Trièves, the Syndicat inter­com­mu­nal de col­lecte et de trai­te­ment des ordures ména­gères (the inter­com­mu­nity asso­cia­tion for the col­lec­tion and treat­ment of hou­se­hold waste) – Sictom – of south Grésivaudan, and the Athanor sor­ting com­pany (Star).

Simplifying the ges­ture of sorting

From left to right, Christophe Drure, Christophe Ferrari, Francis Gimbert, Bernard Eyssard, Pierre Liotard. © Alexandra Moullec

“This synergy of the department’s com­munes was a pre­re­qui­site to the appli­ca­tion being accep­ted by Eco-embal­lages”, says Richard Quemin, cen­tral-eas­tern regio­nal direc­tor of the com­pany res­pon­sible for orga­ni­sing the natio­nal sys­tem of waste sor­ting and recycling.

These “regio­nal dyna­mics” reflect a com­mon desire to sim­plify the ges­ture of waste-sor­ting for thou­sands of users, too often dis­cou­ra­ged when facing the com­plexity of the task, high­lights Georges Oudjaoudi, 17^th vice-pre­sident, dele­ga­ted to the pre­ven­tion, col­lec­tion and reuse of waste.

“We are cur­rently revi­sing our policy on the col­lec­tion and treat­ment of waste”, adds the lat­ter. “We hope that all the fea­tures that will be imple­men­ted will result in grea­ter ease for the inha­bi­tants, more effi­ciency, as well as eco­logy, for our com­mu­ni­ties”, concludes the repre­sen­ta­tive. Measures that will cer­tainly improve the recy­cling of waste plas­tic, which is insuf­fi­ciently reu­sed today..

Plastic packa­ging in France

More than a mil­lion tons : the volume of the plas­tic packa­ging used in France

23 % : the volume of recy­cled plas­tic packaging

50 % : the volume of plas­tic bot­tles and car­tons pla­ced on the mar­ket and sor­ted throu­ghout most of France

One out of two : the num­ber of plas­tic bot­tles and car­tons thrown into the cor­rect bin

A new sor­ting guide 

Grenoble-Alpes Métropole have done eve­ry­thing to ensure that the sor­ting ins­truc­tions are cor­rectly applied, star­ting with the launch of a major cam­paign : all inha­bi­tants, land­lords and co-owner­ship asso­cia­tions of the 49 muni­ci­pa­li­ties of the metro­po­lis have recei­ved, or will receive, a let­ter and a guide with the new sor­ting instructions.

The Grenoble Alpes Métropole Communication cam­paign for the sor­ting of plas­tic packa­ging. Copyright

A pos­ter cam­paign is also plan­ned. Sorting ambas­sa­dors will speak to school­chil­dren and the gene­ral public : “the pri­vi­le­ged com­mu­ni­ca­tion is human contact, the Ambassador of waste sor­ting, who comes to see you”, sup­ports Richard Quemin, cen­tral-eas­tern regio­nal direc­tor of Eco-Emballages.

In order to adapt to the new ins­truc­tions, work was car­ried out at the Athanor sor­ting centre in May 2016. Total invest­ment : 1,700,000 euros. Grenoble-Alpes Métropole, the owner of the sor­ting centre, inves­ted one mil­lion euros, the rest was fun­ded by Eco-Emballages.

“The desire has always been to make the Athanor sor­ting centre an exem­plary faci­lity” says Frédéric Devalle, pre­sident of Star. With satis­fac­tion, he added that much has been inves­ted in “inno­va­tive hard­ware to increase the per­for­mance of sor­ting, both in qua­lity and in quan­tity, while pro­mo­ting employ­ment and the wor­king condi­tions of employees”.

From 25,000 to 35,000 tons of recy­cled packa­ging per year 

© Copyright Métro

Indeed, employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties should be crea­ted : “going from 25,000 to 35,000 tonnes of recy­cled packa­ging each year, throu­ghout these five ter­ri­to­ries, will gene­rate addi­tio­nal eco­no­mic acti­vity and the reuse of packa­ging, because it will not be sent for recy­cling in China […] All this creates employ­ment, which can­not be relo­ca­ted”, says Richard Quemin, cen­tral-eas­tern regio­nal direc­tor of Eco-Emballages. He adds that the sor­ting centre already has 68 employees and the crea­tion of posts is plan­ned for a ser­vice agent, seven sor­ting agents and addi­tio­nal sor­ting ambassadors.

Don’t for­get the envi­ron­men­tal impact : tons of CO₂ should be avoi­ded through the waste sor­ting ges­tures of the inha­bi­tants. Waste which can­not be recy­cled is already inci­ne­ra­ted for heat reco­very by Grenoble-Alpes Métropole. Thus, energy from waste allows the pro­duc­tion of elec­tri­city and the inci­ne­ra­tion plant pro­vides about one-third of the energy nee­ded for Grenoble’s urban hea­ting network.

Nevertheless, all these efforts and devices will only be suc­cess­ful if the citi­zens get their hands dirty : “Today, tech­no­logy can­not be use­ful without the invol­ve­ment of the citi­zens”, as remar­ked by Frédéric Devalle, pre­sident of Star.

Alexandra Moullec

KEY FIGURES OF THE GRENOBLE METROPOLITAN AREA

535 kg : volume of waste pro­du­ced by each inha­bi­tant of the metro­po­lis in 2015

920.000 m³ : volume of rub­bish col­lec­ted in 2015 in the grey or brown bins in the metro­po­lis, nearly twice the volume of the Stade des Alpes

431.000 m³ : volume of recy­clable waste in the metro­po­lis, in 2015

90,5 % of waste col­lec­ted in the Metro, reu­sed or recy­cled, with 48,7 % reu­sed mate­rial (sor­ting, com­post or construc­tion indus­try) and 41,8 % energy recovery

9,5 % of waste is not reu­sed, but trans­fer­red to land­fills or treat­ment centres

Objective : increase the volume of sor­ting (packa­ging, paper) by 15 % and the recy­cling of plas­tic packa­ging by 25 %

USEFUL CONTACTS

For the inha­bi­tants of Grenoble-Alpes Métropole : 0 800 500 027

For the inha­bi­tants of the Grésivaudan Community of com­munes : 04 76 08 03 03 (ser­vice déchets)

For the inha­bi­tants of the South Grésivaudan Sictom : 04 76 38 66 03

For the inha­bi­tants of the Community of com­munes of Matheysine, Pays de Corps and Vallées du Valbonnais : 04 76 81 18 24

For the inha­bi­tants of the Community of com­munes of Trièves : 04 76 34 11 22

Traduction from Speak English Center

Phone : +33 4 76 50 39 79

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