Waste management: the government wants to toughen sanctions against eco-organizations in case of failure

"The sanctions regime available to the State today (...) is currently insufficient to guide eco-organizations towards greater economic and environmental performance," said Mathieu Lefèvre, Minister Delegate for Ecological Transition, on Wednesday, during a hearing before a Senate committee on the notoriously failing management of building waste.

"When an eco-organization does not comply with the specifications, sanctions must be swift and severe. The current system does not allow this, which needs to be thoroughly reviewed - even though we have imposed sanctions in the past, and will fine the eco-organization Refashion in the textile sector for failing to comply with the specifications in 2025," the minister told AFP.

"If it is necessary to withdraw approvals, the State will do so," he added.

In some cases of failure to meet objectives, the procedure can prove to be very long, the ministry points out.

The latter must first notify the shortcomings and propose corrective commitments to the eco-organization within a period of up to eighteen months. Only if compliance is not achieved will a new adversarial procedure be initiated, which may result in sanctions, the firm indicates.

"It can take almost three years between the failure to achieve the objectives and the actual sanction," laments the ministry, which emphasizes that "it is this time lag and the complexity of the system that lead the minister, Mathieu Lefèvre, to judge the current system as insufficiently incentivizing."

The options under consideration therefore focus "on simplifying and accelerating procedures, in order to make sanctions faster, more transparent and more dissuasive, in conjunction with strengthening control measures, as highlighted by the inter-inspection mission on the governance of EPR (extended producer responsibility) sectors in 2024," the ministry concludes.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.