France admitted it has “considerable scope for progress” in reaching EU waste recycling targets by 2025, after the European Commission warned 18 member states they were not on track to reach the EU-wide goals. 

Read the original French story here.

In 2021, less than 50% of over 200 million tonnes of municipal waste produced by European citizens was recycled, Eurostat figures show.

To improve waste management and make it more sustainable, the EU agreed that by 2025, 55% of municipal waste should be reused or recycled, with a 65% recycling target for packaging waste, according to the EU waste directive, last updated in 2018.

The directive also sets out sector-specific targets for each material: 75% for paper and cardboard, 70% for glass, 50% for aluminium and plastic, and 25% for wood.

However, in a report published on Thursday (8 June), the European Commission notes that only nine member states are on track to meet the targets including Austria, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

According to the Commission, France risks not meeting the general target for municipal waste, with a recycling rate of just 42.7% in 2020. The recycling rate is counted in kilograms rather than the number of recycled products.

Admittedly, municipal waste accounts for only 7-10% of the waste produced in the EU, but given the complexity of the waste stream, “the way in which it is [managed] generally gives a good indication of the quality of a country’s waste management system as a whole”, states the 2008 directive.

The problem of plastic

However, when it comes to some sector-based targets such as wood, cardboard, paper, glass, aluminium and ferrous metals, France performs better.

Recycling targets for packaging are also on track to being met, as France recycled 60% of packaging waste in 2020, close to the 65% EU target, the Commission report said.

Bur regarding plastics, France only recycled 20.1% in 2020 against a target of 50%.

The European Commission is therefore calling on France to “considerably step up its action” – a situation the French authorities are well aware of.

“We know it, and we’re not hiding it”, Bérangère Couillard, Secretary of State for Ecology at the French Ecological Transition Ministry services, told EURACTIV France.

The French authorities even admit that with the harmonisation of recycling statistics at the EU level, French recycling rates are even worse than the figures announced by the European Commission.

“We have considerable scope for progress,” the ministry said.

In 2021, France enacted a law on waste and the circular economy which calls for a 100% recycling rate for single-use plastic by 2025.

The new law also states that by 1 January 2024, all households must have a practical solution for sorting their bio-waste. With €100 millions to support local and regional authorities, France is currently preparing a campaign to implement solutions in the regions, according to the Ecological Transition Ministry.

Commission recommendations

Among its recommendations, the Commission calls on Paris to improve the collection of bio-waste and adopt a “population-wide” waste payment system.

France already has an incentive-based pricing system, which charges sectors of the economy according to the quantities of waste they produce. However, in 2022, only 6-7 million people in France used this system, according to the French green ministry.

The European Commission also recommends extending separate collection systems for each type of material – a point that divides member states. While Austria has adopted an “extreme position, separating plastics and plastic resins for example”, France defends a more moderate approach, the ministry explained.

On top of that, “all the levers recommended by the Commission are being studied by the state and regional public authority departments”, the ministry added.

It also said that a 2024-2029 roadmap for improving packaging collection will be unveiled in the week of 19 June.

Still, the Commission remains sceptical, noting that “many measures have been adopted, but it will take time before they produce results”.

But according to CITEO, a non-profit company responsible for collecting and sorting municipal waste in France, Paris will not meet its EU recycling targets at the current rate.

Furthermore, France is still paying the EU a so-called “plastic tax” for every kilogram of plastic waste that is not recycled. In 2021, this will amount to more than €1.2 billion – less than in Germany, the biggest contributor, but more than in Italy or any other EU member state.

Source: Euractiv.com