The Toulouse waste incinerator is "by far" the most polluting in France in terms of the amount of nitrogen oxide emissions, alert, in a report published this Wednesday, the NGO Zero Waste Toulouse.
The latter denounces an “obvious lack of political will” to reduce these rejections.
In 2020, the incinerator emitted 322 tonnes of nitrogen oxide (NOx), or "as much as the three largest French incinerators combined", underlines the Toulouse branch of this association for the defense of the environment.
The Toulouse incinerator, one of the oldest in France still in operation, is located in the immediate vicinity of schools and homes, in the densely populated district of Mirail.
Ranked 8th largest incinerator in France, it also broke records for average NOx concentration, with 156 mg/Nm3, far ahead of that of Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône), second in this ranking with 61 mg/ Nm3.
The “discovery” of these figures, taken from official reports, was “a shock”, declared the administrator of Zero Waste Toulouse, Thomas Guilpain.
In France, an order of September 2002 sets a maximum value for atmospheric NOx emissions at 200 mg/Nm3 on average daily for incineration facilities.
“We are almost on the same levels as 20 years ago”
Economic measures were put in place in 2013 "to encourage operators of incineration facilities to go beyond their simple regulatory obligations", recalls the NGO's report.
"There have been efforts in most incinerators in France, and in Toulouse we are almost on the same levels as twenty years ago", laments Thomas Guilpain.
According to him, "the problem is not only health", but it concerns above all "the urgency to massively reduce the quantity of waste".
What the report points to, “is proof that there is a lack of political will (
in Toulouse
) to tackle this production of waste,” he adds.
An opinion shared by the deputy of La France insoumise (LFI) for the 4th district of Haute-Garonne, François Piquemal.
“In Toulouse, for several decades, six years apart, we have had a right-wing policy which has always had a short-termist vision”, accuses the elected official.
He denounces an “archetypal lack of planning on all ecological issues”.
Consultation in the fall
Vincent Terrail-Novès, vice-president of Toulouse Métropole, for his part underlined that “reducing the production of waste (…) is more difficult to implement in large cities like Toulouse”, which has around 800,000 inhabitants, that in smaller communities.
“To reduce waste, we need the involvement of residents.
And in Toulouse, we are making a lot of efforts to have a readability of the waste policy", assures Vincent Terrail-Novès, also president of Decoset, a joint union of some 150 municipalities of the Toulouse conurbation in charge of the management of factory.
He recognizes figures "higher" than other "new or renovated for the most part" incinerators, but relativizes.
“About 80% of nitrogen oxides are produced by car traffic, 7% by residential and we represent 3%,” he says, citing figures from the quality monitoring body. air, ATMO Occitanie.
However, it indicates that since 2022, Decoset has invested 46 million euros to reduce the quantity of nitrogen oxide in order to fall below the threshold of 150 mg/Nm3.
But given that the incinerator, built in 1969, is reaching the end of its life in 2030, the mixed syndicate preferred to launch a public consultation on the future of the installation, explains Terrail-Novès.
The consultation is scheduled from September 20 to November 27, with three options: the shutdown of the plant in 2030, its renovation or reconstruction, on site or elsewhere.
