REP Building: Exasperated companies denounce a dysfunctional system

This was also an opportunity for the presidents to present a series of proposals for a simpler, more efficient and more sustainable EPR for companies in the sector.

Effective from 2023, the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for the construction sector requires producers to finance the management and recycling of waste from their products through an eco-contribution. This eco-contribution is added to the selling price of products and materials, collected by producers (manufacturers, importers, and distributors with their own brand), and then paid to eco-organizations approved by the State, whose mission includes organizing the free collection and recycling of sorted waste.

A legitimate principle, a flawed implementation

In principle, the FFB AURA fully supports this virtuous approach... provided it works! However, two years later, eco-contributions are still being collected even though some services are not being provided. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), intended to combat illegal dumping and promote recycling, is now synonymous with gridlock and additional costs for construction companies.

It is in this context that Samuel Minot, president of the FFB AURA, Olivier Aubert, president of the Federation of Construction and Public Works of Haute-Savoie, Bruno Bellosta, president of the Federation of Construction and Public Works of Allier, Norbert Fontanel, president of the Federation of Construction and Public Works of Rhône and Métropole, and Julien Planchon, president of the Federation of Construction and Public Works of Haute-Loire, spoke with Fabienne Buccio, Regional Prefect, in order to alert her to the points of blockage and the growing exasperation of member companies.

Four major problems identified

Four major issues are severely impacting construction companies. In this context, the FFB is advocating a series of proposals to implement a simpler, more effective, more realistic, and sustainable system for the sector.

Recovery services suspended or failing

Since 2023, waste collection services have been slowly rolled out, and some eco-organizations have suspended part of their services, namely: on-site waste collection (demolition sites); and on-site waste collection (dumpsters available at businesses). More and more businesses have no waste collection solution at all, or at best, only one at their own expense, while they continue to bear the costs of eco-contributions!

FFB proposals:

• Suspend the collection of eco-contributions until the services are operational.
• Adapt sorting instructions to the realities of construction sites and ensure their application on the ground.

Sorting centers: insufficient territorial coverage

700 theoretical recovery points are listed in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, but the reality on the ground shows restrictive access conditions and insufficient territorial coverage with white zones (Cantal, Haute Loire, Ardèche, Savoie), mainly in rural areas.

The pricing policy of eco-organizations

Eco-contributions continue to be collected despite the service interruption. Furthermore, the rate increases are very high for 2024, with no real notice period; this makes it particularly difficult to pass the cost on to the end customer and shifts the burden onto the company.

Proposals: The FFB calls for greater transparency, and in particular:

• Establish a minimum notice period for any increase in the scale.
• Publish the complete traceability of eco-contributions: amounts collected and allocations by material stream.

The improper application of the concept of producer to certain companies

While companies in the wood and metal trades have finally been able to be excluded from the notion of producer, this is not yet the case for glazed joinery (wood, metal, PVC plastic).

FFB proposal:

• Exclude glazed joinery companies from the status of “producer”

Finally, the FFB AURA is calling for a clarification of the scope. On November 3rd, following the failures of previous consultations, Mathieu Lefevre, Minister Delegate to the Minister for Ecological Transition, Biodiversity and International Negotiations on Climate and Nature, set January 1st, 2026 as the date for the overhaul of the system.

In this context, the FFB reiterates its demands:

• Remove from the EPR the sectors that are already mature, that is to say those which already have an operational recycling system: inert materials, wood, metal.
• Focus the EPR on a few pilot sectors with high potential for valorization: plaster, mineral wools, carpets.

"This final consultation now appears as the last chance and must absolutely succeed" - it was in these terms that Samuel Minot, president of the FFB AURA, addressed the prefect to express the exasperation of the companies and the need to overhaul the current modalities of a system that is inoperative and doomed to failure if nothing changes.

Following these discussions, the Regional Prefect, Fabienne Buccio, pledged to pass these proposals on to the Ministry.