In our weekly column, "Gold in the garbage", we bring you the latest news on biowaste! 📰
Contents
Source separation of biowaste, a new obligation under the AGEC Act
👉 Did you know?
From January 1, 2024, sorting biowaste will be mandatory for everyone. This advance stems from the law on the fight against waste and the circular economy, known as the Agec law, enacted in 2020.
👉 What is biowaste?
Biowaste accounts for a third of French people's residual waste garbage can 🚮
This is organic waste from natural plant or animal resources. It includes peelings, food scraps, dry waste (such as cardboard) and green garden waste 🍎
👉 What does the AGEC Act provide?
The law stipulates that all citizens must have "at their disposal a solution enabling them not to throw away their bio-waste", so that it can be recycled. At present, biowaste is mainly buried or incinerated, which are highly polluting processes. A precious resource, biowaste can be recycled into materials (compost) or energy (biogas) ♻
It's up to local authorities, supported by the government, to implement solutions for citizens.
They have several tools at their disposal:
- Local management(individual or collectivecomposting )
- Separate collection of bio-waste
- Incentive-based pricing
The stakes are of course ecological, since the waste sector is responsible for 4% of greenhouse gas emissions in France in 2023, but they are also economic, at a time of rising waste management costs for taxpayers and local authorities 📈
Our column Gold in our garbage
As this deadline approaches, we invite you to take a look back at this new obligation and its challenges through a series of explanatory posts 📚
We'll be covering the following topics:
- What's the current state of biowaste sorting and recovery?
- Why sort biowaste at source? What are the ecological, economic and social benefits?
- How can we make biowaste sorting more widespread? What solutions are available to local authorities? What difficulties do they face?
See you soon for more information on sorting biowaste! 😉
