If France aims to reduce waste production to 501 kg by 2030, this reduction will only be achieved “at the cost of a strong acceleration of the current trend”, warns the institution.
The volume of household waste is falling too slowly to meet environmental targets, the Court of Auditors warned on Tuesday, criticizing plastic recycling “behind” compared to European neighbours, public management “insufficient” and data “failing”. From 582 kg per inhabitant in 2019 and almost stable above the European average over the last decade, France aims to reduce waste production to 501 kg by 2030 – a 15% drop in 20 years which will not be achievement “only at the cost of a strong acceleration of the current trend”warns the Court.
Progress remains to be made “both on prevention, on selective sorting and on treatment” while 80% of the 249kg per capita of garbage thrown in the trash can “tote” could be valued “if they were sorted”, notes the report. The municipal waste recycling rate reached 44% in 2018, slightly below the European average (47%), while the target of 55% was set for 2020, and far from the 67% in Germany.
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Planned from 2024 and currently “successfully tested in several territories”the sorting of bio-waste – a third of non-recycled waste – is “a major issue”. The generalization of “yellow trash canof all plastic waste, scheduled for the end of 2022, only reached 62% in the territory at the end of 2021. Among the various recommended levers, the extension of incentive pricing, which provides that households pay collection costs either based on the value of their home but the volume of garbage produced. This taxation “has shown its effectiveness in reducing tonnage collected and management costs, in France and abroad” but has only been implemented for just 6 million people today, falling short of the 2020 target of 15 million.
12% of waste produced is household
The State should finance 80% of the cost of its implementation by local authorities, recommends the Court. And, where tourism generates a surplus of waste, a “tourist tax surcharge” could finance the prevention and management of waste, according to the principle of “polluter pays”. In total, household waste represents 12% of the waste produced in France, but mobilizes 61.5% of expenditure, or nearly 16 billion euros due to the vast collection and treatment needs. Too little money is however allocated to prevention, regrets the Court.
The High Court is also responsible “a faulty tracking device” with indicators “both too numerous and published too late” from “incomplete local data”. She recommends setting up a “dashboard” with six key figures published each year.