30% more packaging and paper in our household waste?
A revealing analysis of sorting practices
Léko recently carried out 80 characterizations of residual household waste in its 13 partner local authorities. The results are edifying: despite a well-established sorting habit among 67% of French people for household packaging and 63% for paper, nearly 30% of recyclable packaging and paper still ends up in the household waste bin.
These recyclable materials should have been directed to the green bin for glass or the yellow bin for all other packaging. Here are the raw results for unsorted materials:
- Cardboard, paper and food packaging: 37.5
- Rigid plastics (bottles and trays) and flexible plastics (films and sachets): 37.4%, including 88% of flexible and rigid packaging excluding bottles
- Glass: 15.6
- Metals (steel and aluminum): 9.4
After more than 30 years of selective sorting and awareness-raising, the situation remains worrying. Communication campaigns, recovery plans, modernization of sorting systems... Despite all these efforts, one question remains: how can we capture the 30% of packaging and paper that is still not recycled?
The analysis of French people's garbage cans should spur us into action! With this in mind, in the 2nd quarter of 2024 Léko launched its first calls for projects to finance innovative initiatives.
These have led to the launch of 35 targeted actions, with the aim of extracting an additional 5,000 tonnes of household waste. These actions include
- Modernizing sorting centers
- Public awareness campaigns
- Reducing the frequency of household waste collection in favor of packaging collection
- The right balance between door-to-door and drop-off sorting
- The introduction of an incentive fee
- The development of out-of-home selective collection
In 2025, Léko's partner local authorities will refine their strategies to further improve sorting performance in their areas, building on the analyses of the composition of their residual household waste (RWH) carried out in 2024. Léko is committed to actively supporting them through future performance contracts and by measuring progress through new characterization campaigns on the theme: "Show me your garbage cans, and I'll tell you who you are!