Anti-waste law: The greatest vigilance is required for the building industry

While the “anti-waste” bill is about to be examined in a Senate sitting, a project that its sustainable development commission has just profoundly modified, professionals in the building and waste industries remind that they do not subscribe to the principle of EPR which, as proposed for this sector, could cost nearly 2 billion euros per year, an invoice which would de facto impact the costs of construction.

As they unanimously expressed it last September 5 before the Secretary of State Brune Poirson, the professionals are fully in agreement with the objectives pursued by the public authorities on the question of site waste: improvement of sorting, collection, recovery and fight against wild deposits. However, they call on them to be cautious and nuanced in their responses. In this regard, they point out that no serious economic impact analysis could be made on the consequences of a general switchover of construction products and materials in an EPR system.

Professionals do not dispute the urgency to act, on the contrary, but the law must allow a differentiated approach to the problem based on the analysis of the environmental performance of existing industries. It must not freeze things excessively, at the risk of unnecessarily calling into question the collection and recovery schemes that work today.

The 14 organizations representing the building and waste industry will make proposals in this regard during parliamentary discussions.

They are also determined to actively contribute to the implementation of the three main proposals, which are directly based on their study submitted to the Secretary of State last June, namely:

The establishment of an observatory and a tool on traceability;
Strengthening the territorial network in collection points;
And the recovery free of charge in the recycling center of the only sorted waste from sectors for which it is useful. For scrap metal (whose recovery is valued financially) or rubble (whose cost is less than € 10 per tonne), free is nonsense. It is therefore necessary to exercise discernment in this matter.

At the same time, it was approved by the public authorities, during this same meeting on September 5, the launch of a prefiguration study conducted by ADEME whose objective is to define the scope, the sectors to be supported, the financing methods as well as the type of structure, including the inter-branch, which will pilot all actions for building waste. It therefore seems premature to include in the law the form, the scope, the methods of financing as well as the methods of piloting the system.

In order to guarantee its success, it is essential:

that professionals be fully involved in the management of this study;
that it allows for a serious technical and economic evaluation, in particular of the consequences of the cost-free takeover which could have, in fact, an economic impact that is difficult to bear for professionals and for building owners.

Finally, on wild deposits, as the Secretary of State rightly pointed out, the 14 professional organizations recall that they are not the sole fact of the sector. Less than a quarter of these deposits are building waste^[1]. In addition, this scourge gives an image which harms the building and contributes to unfair competition. The means of controls and sanctions must be strengthened to effectively fight incivility.

The 14 professional organizations obviously remain at the disposal of the public authorities to continue to move forward in a constructive and collaborative way, and to find lasting and economically balanced solutions.

Building waste in figures
(Source: 2019 sector study - inventory)

46 Mt of Building waste is produced each year in France.
Three-quarters (34 Mt) are inert waste (concrete, rubble, tiles, bricks, etc.), about 20% (10 Mt) are non-hazardous waste (metal, wood, plastic, plaster, insulation, windows, etc.) and 5 % (2 Mt) are hazardous waste (asbestos, treatment products, glues, paints, etc.).
The waste recovery rate for the Building sector (excluding earthworks) is estimated at 67% while the European target set for 2020 is 70% for the construction sector.

Please note: less than 6% of building waste is collected in public recycling centers.

^[1] Ademe study on illegal dumping - February 2019