1is July, four parking spaces were transformed into voluntary delivery points for bio-waste (food waste) in the 14e district of Paris. The compost bins were built in a few weeks at the request of the neighborhood association Les Hyper Voisins, which has more than 15,000 members.
A transformation with an ecological aim for these residents and with symbolic significance for the City of Paris, whose mayor, Anne Hidalgo, wishes to reduce the place of the automobile in the city. ” This project tripartite, association-business-community, will be tested for six months. The installation was done very quickly and we already have three times more entries than expected ”, says Cyrielle Callot, general manager of the start-up Les Alchimistes, which organizes the collection and recycling of bio-waste from professionals and more and more households.
Like Paris, projects to install shared compost bins are multiplying in French municipalities. In Amiens, the Les Recyclettes association, whose bio-waste collection services were originally intended for restaurateurs, set up three shared composters in early 2020, at the request of local residents. “When we started to exist on social networks, many individuals contacted us to ask us to collect their bio-waste. We realized that there was a real need ”, explains Olivia Beaujot, co-founder of the association.
Food waste (peelings, uneaten food, etc.) represents 30% of household trash
Today, food waste (peelings, uneaten food, etc.) represent 30% of household trash, according to the Ecological Transition Agency (Ademe) and often end up in landfill or incinerated. A method that Pauline Debrabandere, head of the “territory” program of the Zero Waste France association, considers insane. “During incineration, we burn waterlogged food, such as salad, which is 90% composed of it. It’s totally paradoxical ”, she explains. The incineration of waste produces greenhouse gases (GHGs) which contribute to global warming during the combustion process.
Landfilling bio-waste also pollutes: the compaction of food waste in an oxygen-free environment causes it to ferment, thus creating conditions favorable to the emission of methane into the atmosphere. On the contrary, the valorization of food waste by composting makes it possible to return these organic materials to the soil, transforming them into a product similar to potting soil to nourish the soil.
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