Return to door-to-door home rubbish collection expected for many in France

A court in Dordogne, France, is expected to reinstate door-to-door rubbish collection, overriding the controversial system of local waste drop-off points.

The recommendations - issued by the public rapporteur on Thursday, February 6 - are now expected to set a precedent in Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne and elsewhere in France - meaning they could affect the rubbish collections for almost two million people if the court follows them.

The court hearing ended with recommendations from the public rapporteur, who said that door-to-door collection should return.

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 under no legal obligation to follow the rapporteur’s recommendations, but it is expected to do so (although this could take weeks or months). The rapporteur public is a neutral court official who summarises the situation to the administrative court and states their legal opinion.

In practice, judges do nearly always follow rapporteur recommendations.

Rubbish system change

If it does go ahead, the decision will change the way that rubbish is collected 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 some 140,000 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 PAV system did not provide the same environmental protection equivalent to that of during door-to-door collection 

• The PAV system did not provide an equivalent quality of service. 

“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.”

Read also: French AI system can see inside bin bags: what is it being used for? 

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?
Read more: French households throw out more rubbish despite ‘incentive’ bin fees

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.