Will composting soon be compulsory for everyone in France? As of January 1, 2024, source separation of biowaste will become the norm in France. By this date, all households will have to have a practical solution for sorting organic waste, and will be required to dispose of biodegradable waste from kitchen and garden leftovers, such as vegetable and fruit peelings, food scraps, wilted flowers, coffee grounds, etc., in a specific bin.
As the French Ministry of Ecology explains, biowaste accounts for a third of French people's residual waste. And "landfilling biowaste is a source of greenhouse gas emissions ", warns the Ministry, which explains that " organic recovery via composting, land application or methanization enables raw organic matter to be returned to the soil or transformed into a recoverable material, compost or digestate, adapted to the agronomic needs of the soil ".
This is why, since 2012, anyone (green space companies, supermarkets, food processing industries, canteens, etc.) who produces or holds a significant quantity of bio-waste has been obliged to sort this bio-waste and recycle it through appropriate channels, such as methanization or composting. To date, only a third of French households have a compost bin.
" According to changes in European regulations, and the ensuing 2020 anti-waste law ", this source separation of biowaste will therefore be mandatory in France from January 1, 2024 for all private individuals, local authorities and industrial companies, regardless of the quantity of biowaste produced.
The French Energy Transition Law for Green Growth provides for the generalization of source separation of biowaste for all waste producers " so that every citizen has a solution available to them that enables them to avoid disposing of their biowaste in residual household waste, so that it can be recycled rather than disposed of ", says the Ministry.
