 |
|
|
|
|
Home » Projects » REB
2000 » Conferences
FRENCH POLICY FOR WASTE TREATMENT
This legislation also supplied instruments and tools for handling specific
categories of waste. Recovery and disposal of oils and lubricants used
in vehicles and mechanical industry were made viable through a special
tax of FF150 (22.87euros) per tone. This tax paid by producers and importers
is collected by the customs administration. It was raised to FF200 (30.49
euros) per tone as of 1 January 1999.
The revenue from the tax is transferred to ADEME, which administers
it and covers the operating deficit of the certified collection companies.
This system later inspired analogous systems applied to batteries and
tires.
The financial and regulatory instruments created by the French government
have yielded positive results, which include the following:
-
Municipal waste collection services for practically the entire
population of the country, whereas 20 years ago 50% of the population
was covered;
-
Glass collection covering roughly 85% of the population, compared
to 25% 20 years ago;
-
Recovery of spent oil has risen from 30% to around 70% of total
sales, in 20 years.
However these instruments had reached a limit by the end of the 1980s.
The amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) was, and is, steadily rising
(now 378 kg per capita and per year, whereas it was 220 kg some years
ago). Furthermore, 52% of MSW was still directly landfilled without
prior treatment, a practice that is not easily reconcilable with environmental
objectives such as preservation of ecosystems and biodiversity, land
use criteria, and prevention of methane emissions from landfills, which
amplify the greenhouse effect and thus contribute to global warming.
Given that the cost of landfill disposal was considerably lower than
that of any other form of processing, in a ratio of US$30 to US$70-80
(32-75/86 euros) per tone of MSW, it became necessary to institute a
more stringent and more effective policy governing landfill quality.
This was done through new waste legislation adopted in July 1992. This
legislation sought to enhance the effectiveness of waste management
policy and make it more dynamic.
-
Planning: an urban waste plan was to be drawn up in each department
by 1996, outlining waste management action, including optimization
of transportation conditions; likewise a scheme for management of
hazardous industrial waste is to be set up in each region;
-
The notion of residual waste, defined as a waste product obtained
through a treatment process and which cannot be further modified,
i.e. which has been stabilized by the best available techniques;
As of 2002 only residual wastes will be accepted for landfilling (in
managed and regularly monitored landfills).
-
Rehabilitation of former landfills and pollution sites: ADEME is
in charge of decontamination of abandoned and « orphan »
sites, those sites for which no liable party can be found, or said
party is insolvent;
-
Public information and outreach: French government policy on the
environment has clearly emphasized these two objectives, since the
Protection and Conservation of Nature Act of 1976.
|
|
|
|
This book is the result of the proceedings of the Romanian Environmental
Forum, 6th edition held in Bucharest between 16 and 19 November 1999. 
|
|
GROUP OF INDEPENDENT EXPERTS Ltd.
