Recycling: plastic producers deplore France's delay

The association bringing together European plastic producers called on Tuesday to generalize selective collection in France, in view of the delay of the country which always puts more waste in the landfill than it recycles, unlike its European neighbors.

To discover

• Taxes 2022: all about your tax return

Read alsoWaste mafia: the gendarmes strike at the heart of organized crime

“Since 2015 in Europe, we recycle more than we put in landfill.

This is not the case at all in France”, declared Jean-Yves Daclin, managing director of Plastics Europe, when publishing the 2020 figures on the circular plastic economy in France.

Taken out of the bins, plastic waste can have three fates: to be landfilled, to be burned to produce energy or even to be recycled into new plastic.

In France, the second technique is the most widely used, since 44% of post-consumer plastic waste was recovered for energy in 2020. Next comes landfilling (31%) and finally recycling, which represents only 25% of waste treatment, despite an increase in recent years.

Only 3% of mixed plastic packaging collected is recycled

“We are on a good trend, but very clearly insufficient in terms of pace”, warned Jean-Yves Daclin, recalling that France was one of the five worst students in Europe, where 34% of plastic waste is recycled in average (almost 50% for the top three - the Netherlands, Norway and Spain).

The solution according to Plastics Europe?

Generalize selective collection, which allows “to achieve an extremely high recycling rate”, unlike mixed collection, of which “only a tiny part is sent for recycling”.

Read alsoRefocused on France, Suez redoubles its international ambitions

For example, 77% of plastic packaging collected and sorted is recycled, compared to only 3% of that collected as a mixture (i.e. two thirds of this waste).

"We have a phenomenal margin for progress", says Jean-Yves Daclin, "If all plastic packaging were collected separately, France could largely double its production of recycled plastic materials".

However, not all sectors are at the same point: only 4% of plastic waste related to household equipment, sports and leisure is recycled, compared to 51% of agricultural waste, thanks to a voluntary collection system set up in place by the sector.

Plastics Europe observes that the sectors which are doing the best have a voluntary system or legislation obliging the industry to organize its recycling (REP),