Legislation & targets
|
According to French legislation, only “final” waste (i.e waste that cannot be recovered in the current economic or technical conditions is allowed to be landfilled). This is the basis for separate collection of recyclable waste such as paper in order to facilitate their recovery and recycling.
Municipalities or groupings of municipalities1 should ensure the collection and treatment of household waste. They can also be in charge of commercial waste if this does not impose any specific technical constraints and with no risks to persons and the environment. Taking in charge commercial waste is done against a fee which is calculated based on the importance of the service or as a lump-sum in case of small quantities. Legislation also foresees to integrate an incentive-based element into the calculation of waste fees.In addition to the EU legal obligations, the national Law on energy transition2, adopted in 2015, foresees that until 2020 public services, municipalities and groupings of municipalities:
– reduce their consumption of office paper by 30% by establishing a prevention plan
– use at least 40% of recycled paper
|
Regional context
|
At the end of the 1990s, the Vendée region was lacking waste treatment facilities. Private landfill sites were shut down, whereas public facilities were few and with a limited capacity. In this context, elected representatives of the region created a joint association in order to explore treatment options for household and assimilated waste and possibilities for synergies/ coordination at the level of the region. In 2003, the association named Trivalis becomes operational and takes over waste treatment competencies. In the next years, public treatment facilities have been built all over the region, guaranteeing local solutions. The objective has been to achieve maximum material and organic recovery from mixed residual waste in order to reduce landfilling. Preference is given to mechanical-biological treatment where the output (i.e compost material) is destined for agriculture. Energy recovery facilities do not meet public acceptance and any project of constructing them has been abandoned.
Trivalis is a joint association gathering the 282 municipalities of the Vendée region – either directly or through larger groupings of “intermunicipalities”.
Municipalities have waste collection and treatment competencies. As members of Trivalis, they have transferred the treatment to Trivalis. This competency includes treatment itself, disposal of final waste, as well as transport, sorting, composting or storage.
SCOM Est Vendéen is an association of 4 intermunicipalities gathering 40 municipalities. It is in charge of residual waste collection, separate collection and management of civic amenity sites on its territory. SCOM is a member of Trivalis to which it has delegated waste treatment operations. |