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Home » Projects » REB
2000 » Conferences
FRENCH POLICY FOR WASTE TREATMENT
By enacting these principles the policy aims to implement an integrated
waste management strategy. The quantities of solid waste, and particularly
of packaging waste, must be reduced; likewise source separation is a
preferred option for improving sorting and recycling; after these operations
the most appropriate form of treatment is applied.
The treatment sequence is implemented according to an approach designed
for recovery of a range of materials at a single site, as follows:
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Source separation of waste (kerbside collection, voluntary diversion,
materials recovery center) ;
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Generalization of waste sorting, whenever possible;
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Materials recovery and recycling whenever possible;
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After analysis, one of the following options is adopted:
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Biological treatment (composting/methanisation)
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Thermal treatment (incineration, including co- incineration
in rotary cement kilns, fluidized bed units)
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Physicochemical treatment (for certain toxic substances)
;
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Production of energy (heat, cogeneration), recovery of landfill
methane gas, waste-derived fuel, recovery and recycling of byproducts
and various residues (slag) ;
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Environmental protection procedures (neutralization of gaseous
and particulate releases, reduction of liquid and solid discharges
(in compliance with the authorization permit);
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Final storage of residual wastes employing a range of stabilization
techniques (Portland cement, organic and mineral hydraulic binders,
vitrification);
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When incineration is used dioxins and furans are closely monitored.
Waste reduction and recycling are now the two priorities of French
waste management policy. Recycled products are channeled back into conversion
processes, and reintroduced into the economy.
In the steel industry 30% of scrap metal is recycled in electric-arc
steel mills, 50% of glass is recycled in the glass industry, 49% of
cardboard is recycled in paper making; between 80% and 95% of aluminum
used in construction and transport is recycled, 30% of aluminum used
in packaging (second melt and refining), etc. Even composite materials,
new lightweight materials with high performance in terms of mechanical
resistance and the capability of forming complex shapes are nowadays
necessarily designed to be recyclable. Environmental constraints are
increasingly preponderant when weighing economic choices (six million
tones of composite materials are produced annually in the world, valued
at 180 billion francs/ 27.44 billion euros).
Two significant economic instruments were instituted by this legislation:
a tax on solid waste disposed of in landfill, and centimes levy on packaging.
Altogether the cost of waste treatment has doubled as a result of the
measures implemented under this new policy.
The solid waste tax was first applied to MSW and to non-hazardous industrial
waste sent to landfill. In 1998 this tax came to FF40 (6.10 euros) per
tone of solid waste. It is collected and administered by ADEME, and
brings in some 800 million francs (122 million euros), credited to the
fund for the modernization of waste management.
This fund finances projects capable of enhancing the effectiveness
of the legislated policy, in other words it provides financing for MSW
and non-hazardous industrial waste treatment facilities, for R&D
and other studies, and for public information and outreach.
Three related objectives are also set forth:
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Funding of an ambitious R&D program: more accurate knowledge
of the nature of waste, new treatment techniques, better landfill
operation aimed at tight oversight and reliable sanitary conditions
through diagnostic studies of contaminated zones, socio-economic assessment,
exploitation of byproducts such as biogas;
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Funding for rehabilitation of obsolete or abandoned municipal landfills;
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Compensatory subsidies for municipalities that accept new waste
treatment facilities, on the order of FF6 (O.91 euros) per tone of
waste brought in from outside the municipality.
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This book is the result of the proceedings of the Romanian Environmental
Forum, 6th edition held in Bucharest between 16 and 19 November 1999. 
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GROUP OF INDEPENDENT EXPERTS Ltd.
