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ENVIRONMENT

Compulsory composting: What changes for recycling in France in 2024

From January 1st 2024 the 'compost obligatoire' rules come into effect in France - so what does that actually mean for households?

Published: 1 December 2023 15:08 CET
Updated: 1 January 2024 13:21 CET
Compulsory composting: What changes for recycling in France in 2024
(Photo by Eric PIERMONT / AFP)

In France, an estimated 82kg of compostable waste per person per year goes into the household waste bin – and then it is either burned in an incinerator, or goes to landfill, where it breaks down, emitting greenhouse gas methane.

In the greater Paris region of Île-de-France alone, some 900,000 tonnes of compostable ‘biowaste’ is incinerated, when it could be turned into fertiliser, and sold to farmers, or transformed into gas that could be stored and used to heat homes.

It’s for this reason that ‘compost obligatoire‘ (compulsory composting) will come into effect on January 1st.

However, the phrase is something of a misnomer – maybe even a deliberate one.

There is no requirement for households to compost, or to separate their biowaste from other refuse – the obligation is on local authorities to offer easy-to-use means by which households can compost, if they want to. 

And how will they do that?

That’s up to individual local authorities – and in fact many local authorities already offer composting or biowaste facilities.

Most appear to be setting up drop-off bins in public spaces for people to use, similar to the glass, cardboard and plastic bins that have been in use for many years. This would involve households separating out their biowaste from their general waste, and then putting biowaste in the communal compost bin.

According to the Environmental Code, bio-waste is classed as “non-hazardous biodegradable garden or park waste, food or kitchen waste from households, offices, restaurants, wholesale trade, canteens, caterers or retail outlets, as well as comparable waste from food processing plants”.

It would include things like vegetable peelings, fruit cores and food scraps.

Some towns have set up a door-to-door collection system, with trucks making the rounds of the ‘green’ garbage cans once or twice a week.

At least one, however, has considered supplying plastic bags that households can fill, and then deposit in their household waste bin for sorting at a refuse centre.

But from January, all local authorities must offer some kind of option – you can check with your local mairie or on the website of the préfecture for details in your area, and in fact some local authorities offer free household composting bins or even free worms.

Will it catch on?

That’s the big question. Precedence doesn’t bode well. Ordif (Observatoire régional des déchets en Île-de-France) director Helder de Oliveira told Le Parisien that only 40 percent of paper, cardboard and plastics are recycled, even though the collection and recycling of these materials was introduced 30 years ago.

“Asking people to sort their food waste from now on is akin to a cultural revolution,” de Oliveira added.

Making the task as simple and convenient as possible would help – by installing enough public bins that people do not have to walk far to deposit their biowaste. Or by providing the means for people to separate their waste at home without having to make a special trip.

One last question. January 1st is a month away … Will local authorities be ready? 

The answer to that is, most probably, no. “Only a third of the population will be in a position to do so by the end of 2023”, according to environmentalist Jean-Jacques Fasquel.

The problem is not capacity – there are some 500 specialist businesses in France capable of processing the waste. The problem is collecting and delivering the biowaste for processing. It’s feared that towns and cities simply won’t have the systems in place to gather the refuse in the first place.

Member comments

  1. “Compulsory” doesn’t seem appropriate to the situation described and, whilst a good idea, anything which is to be successfully compulsory needs to be planned from its start to its finish, namely from origin to disposal. Could this be an example of trying to cure the problem rather than avoid the cause?

  2. Many of us, in France, have a compost heap in our gardens and keep it going with fruit and vegetable waste, garden trimmings, coffee grounds and more. The new compost bins will not be used by those of us who use our compost to nourish our fruit and vegetable plants.
    We will seem non-compliant, but the truth is otherwise.

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For members

TRAVEL NEWS

What’s the deal with passport stamping in France?

There are clear guidelines in place about who should have their passport stamped when they enter or leave France - but the letter of the law doesn't always seem to be applied on the ground. Here's what you need to know.

Published: 17 May 2024 14:24 CEST
What's the deal with passport stamping in France?

When you pass through a French border control post, officers will check your passport and – in some cases – stamp the date of your entry or exit of the country onto one of the blank pages in the booklet.

Although the system should be clear and simple, it becomes complicated when conflicting information is given on the ground.

Here’s what the rules say, and whether it’s really a problem if your passport is incorrectly stamped.

Who should be stamped?

The purpose of the date stamps for entry and exit is to calculate how long you have been in France, and therefore whether you have overstayed your allowed time – whether that is the time allowed by a short-stay Schengen visa or the visa-free 90-day allowance that certain non-EU nationals benefit from. 

Those people who are exempt from 90-day restrictions should therefore not have their passports stamped.

EU passport – people who have an EU passport should not have it stamped, because they have the right to unlimited stays due to EU freedom of movement.

Dual nationals – people who have passports of both EU and non-EU countries should not be stamped when they are travelling on their EU passport. However, because the passports of dual nationals are not ‘linked’, those travelling on their non-EU passports will be stamped, unless they have other proof of residency.

READ ALSO What are the rules for dual-nationals travelling in France?

French residents – the passports of non-EU citizens who have a residency permit in France (carte de séjour) should not be stamped, because they have the right to stay in France for as long as their permit is valid.

Visa holders – people who have a long-stay visa or a short-stay visitor visa should not be stamped, because they have the right to stay in France for as long as their visa is valid. 

Tourists/visitors – people making short visits to France who do not have a visa should be stamped, with the stamps keeping track of their 90-day allowance. Visitors from nationalities who do not benefit from the 90-day rule (eg Indians) are also stamped.

Travel practicalities

When crossing a French border, you should present your passport along with other documents – visa or carte de séjour – if relevant. Don’t wait for border guards to ask whether you are a resident.

It should be noted that the carte de séjour is not a travel document and cannot be used to cross borders, not even internal Schengen zone borders. The only valid travel documents for entering France are a passport or national ID card. Any other forms of ID – driving licence, residency card etc – cannot be used for travel purposes.

Border problems

While the rules on stamping are simple in theory, many readers of The Local have reported having their passports incorrectly stamped at the border, and this seems to be a particular problem for non-EU nationals who are resident in France.

Travellers are also often given incorrect information by border guards – for example being told that only holders of the post-Brexit Article 50 TUE carte de séjour are exempt from stamping, that all non-EU nationals must have their passports stamped or that only being married to a French national exempts you from stamping.

None of these are correct.

It’s also sometimes the case that people whose passports should be stamped – tourists, visitors and second-home owners who don’t have a visa – do not receive the stamp. For frequent visitors this can be a problem because it looks as though they have had a long stay in France, due to their exit not being recorded.

The system of stamping itself is also a bit haphazard with stamps scattered throughout the passport book in random order, so border guards sometimes make mistakes and miss an entry or exit stamp and therefore think that people have overstayed when they haven’t.

So how much of a problem actually is it if your passport is wrongly stamped?

It’s one thing to know the rules yourself, it’s quite another to have an argument with a border guard, in French, when a long queue is building behind you. Numerous Local readers have reported feeling that they had no choice but to accept a stamp when an implacable guard insisted upon it.

But is this really a problem?

One thing is clear – if you are a resident of France then you have the right to re-enter, and your proof of residency (visa or carte de séjour) takes precedence over any passport stamps. So it’s not a question of being barred from the country – it can, however, be inconvenient as it might lead to delays at the border while your passport record is queried.

Meanwhile people who did not receive correct exit stamps can be incorrectly told that they have over-stayed and even be liable for a fine. 

Will the new EES passport control system improve this?

Theoretically, the EU’s new Entry & Exit System – which does away with the manual stamping of passports – should get rid of these problems.

However, as we have seen, theory and what actually happens on the ground are two different things.

The EES system, due to come into effect later this year, brings in two main changes – it makes passport checks more secure by adding diometric data such as fingerprints and facial scans and it does away with manual stamping of passports and replaces it with scans which automatically calculate how long people have been in France.

You can read full details of how it works HERE. 

So that should eliminate the problems of unclear stamps, stamps being read wrongly or passports not getting the stamps they need.

Residents in France – carte de séjour and visa holders – are not required to complete EES checks and should have a separate system at ports, airports and railway terminals.

However, at present it’s pretty common for border guards to give incorrect information to non-EU residents who are resident in the EU – let’s hope that they are properly briefed before EES is deployed.

Have you had problems with passports being incorrectly stamped? Please share your experiences in the comments section below

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