Return to door-to-door home rubbish collection expected for many in France
The decision could set a precedent for up to two million people in different areas of France
The system requiring residents to store their rubbish at home and then take it to voluntary collection points is unpopular
249 Anurak/Shutterstock
A French court is expected to reinstate door-to-door home rubbish collections, ending a controversial system introduced in the south-west in 2023 that requires people to store their waste at home and then take it themselves to local drop-off disposal sites.
The rapporteur public recommended on Thursday, February 6 that door-to-door rubbish collection should return. The rapporteur is a neutral court official who summarises a situation to the administrative court and states their legal opinion.
If the court follows the recommendation it is expected to set a precedent in France meaning it could affect the rubbish collections for almost two million people throughout the country.
Lawyer Adrien Souet, representing the system’s critics, said: “The public rapporteur was in favour of my clients, and in his opinion found that the system for collecting household waste in the Dordogne was illegal.”
“He recommended a return to door-to-door collection,” the lawyer told France 3.
The court is not obliged to follow the rapporteur’s recommendations, but it is expected to do so. A decision could take weeks or months to come.
In practice, judges do nearly always follow rapporteur recommendations.
Rubbish system change
If it does go ahead, the decision will the change the way that rubbish is collected for some 140,000 homes in Dordogne.
It comes after waste management union the Syndicat mixte départemental des déchets de la Dordogne (SMD3) changed the way it collected rubbish in 2023.
It stopped the usual door-to-door collection services, and now requires households to store their bins at home, and take them to points d’apport volontaire (PAV, voluntary collection points).
It is free to deposit recyclable waste, but black bags (household waste) are billed on a flat-rate basis. Any excess rubbish is also charged.
Resident issues
Problems with the system soon emerged, residents state, with some saying that disabled people were unable to access the bins, and that families with excess waste (such as those with small children and childminders who use a large number of nappies) were being penalised.
They claimed that the new system was encouraging fly tipping, waste piling up at homes, and excess bin bag dumping.
As a result, an association representing residents took the SMD3 to court, seeking to revert to the previous system.
In their application, the opponents raised two points:
“The public rapporteur based his opinion on photographs, bailiff's reports and certificates, as well as on journalistic work. And he considered that these two conditions were not met,” said lawyer Mr Souet.
Electronic chip-enabled bins?
The court case comes as rumours abound that millions of people across France will soon be required to use electronic chip-enabled bins, which would enable local councils to charge residents per rubbish bag and set up ‘incentive-based pricing’ to encourage more recycling.
However, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition has denied that the system would become compulsory for everyone, and claimed that press reports on the subject were incorrect.
“Contrary to recent media reports, there is no obligation for local authorities to equip their bins with RFID (radio frequency identification) chips,” said the ministry in a statement, reported by Le Parisien.
“These devices can be used as part of an incentive-based pricing system, but it is entirely up to local authorities to decide whether or not to implement them.
“The political objective of 25 million people covered by incentive-based pricing by 2025, set out in la loi relative à la transition énergétique pour la croissance verte [green growth law of 2015], does not require incentive-based pricing to be implemented.”
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However, by 2024, 229 local authorities had introduced incentive-based pricing for 8.4 million people in France. These fees replace the household waste collection tax (la taxe d’enlèvement des ordures ménagères), which is based on property rental value.
Read also: Can I avoid rubbish collection charges in France?
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Local authorities also say that it reduces the frequency of collections, which enables cost-savings. However, the system can also be controversial among residents, and lead to illegal waste dumping.
