Banana peels, chicken bones and coffee grounds still have a bright future ahead of them in the gray trash: food waste sorting is only practiced, one year after the entry into force of its obligation, by a minority of people. French, often lack of solutions to collect them separately.
According to the Ecological Transition Agency (Ademe), by mid-2024 only 40% of French people had a source sorting solution set up by their community for this waste which generally represents a third of the trash.
Less than 20% of all households have access “either to a voluntary drop-off point system, or to door-to-door collection, so really bins and bins dedicated to this bio-waste, which are then collected by truck”explains to AFP Muriel Bruschet, national biowaste referent for Ademe.
This waste is then sent to massification platforms and large recovery units such as composting platforms and methanization units, she explains.
Other French people with a source sorting solution benefit from the distribution of individual composters by their municipality, “on a voluntary basis”or shared composters, to produce compost used on site, according to Ms. Bruschet.

Food waste collection points installed in a street in Strasbourg, January 4, 2024 / FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP/Archives
No sanction
The network of solutions, which covered some 30% of the population a year ago, has nevertheless progressed by around 10 points since then, notes the NGO Zero Waste France, which is particularly concerned about a deficit of support for communities.
“What is wrong is communication and awareness among residents”explains Pauline Debrabandere, head of advocacy for the NGO, to AFP.
“If you have voluntary drop-off points where there are too many sorting errors”waste “will not end up in compost or methanization”: “our fear is that in two years, there will be communities who tell us ‘it didn’t work, people don’t participate, so we’ll stop’”she explains.
Two reasons are given to explain this slow deployment: a weak text and a lack of financial support from the State to communities.
As soon as the text specifying the terms of application of the law was published in December 2023, the communities deplored its character as a simple notice, lacking the scope of a decree, not providing for “neither sanctions nor results objectives”.
There is, at this stage, no more restrictive draft text, a ministerial source told AFP.
For the rest, “we have a real problem financing the ecological transition”lamented Pauline Debrabandere for Zero Waste.
A planed green fund
The green fund, set up in 2021, allowed communities to make specific requests for equipment financing from Ademe, but it was “planed” several times, before his scheduled disappearance in 2026, deplores Ms. Debrabandere.

A food waste collection point on January 9, 2024 in Marseille / Nicolas TUCAT / AFP/Archives
“Many local authorities have not benefited from the aid that was supposedly promised”regrets Nicolas Garnier, general delegate of the Amorce network, which represents communities engaged in the ecological transition.
“There is reason to be angry”he believes.
The Ministry of Ecological Transition, contacted by AFP, affirms that the allocation of the green fund “made it possible to respond to all the requests expressed by the communities”.
The Le Creusot-Monceau urban community, a pioneer on the subject with the installation of connected lockers to receive bio-waste, benefited from aid from Ademe of 140,000 euros for an investment of more than 800,000 euros.
“We are not providing the necessary means of support to communities which are very favorable to implementing this type of policy”estimates the president of the urban community, David Marti.
In addition to the environmental aspect, he highlights “long-term savings” allowed by the approach: “the better you sort, the less risk there is of an increase in tax (on household waste)”.
“Deploying a solution on a community scale is not immediate, it takes between three and four years”estimates Ms. Bruschet, who expects by 2026 a “clear increase because the projects will reach the end of deployment”.