The anti-waste law, or AGEC law (Anti-Waste Law for a Circular Economy), came into force in France in 2020 and provides measures to reduce waste in all sectors: banning single-use plastics, developing sorting, combating planned obsolescence, and even… revalorizing biowaste . It is on this last part that we will focus in this article.

Biowaste (any organic waste of plant or animal origin that can decompose naturally) is only partially revalued today. For example, a third of the contents of French trash are food waste that will end up in landfills when they could be transformed into biogas for urban heating (source: ecologie.gouv).

By-products of certain agri-food industries sometimes suffer the same fate (such as solid residue from apples after pressing them to make cider; egg shells after preparing recipes; etc.).

The idea of ​​the law is to encourage good practices to avoid this waste and it has a significant impact on professionals producing biowaste: they will be required from ¹ January 2024 to sort at source and recover all their biowaste . This obligation already concerns all professionals producing more than 5 tonnes of biowaste per year.

Sorting at source involves setting up a system to separate biowaste from other waste. It is the responsibility of the issuer to find a solution to unpack a product that becomes biowaste, or to ensure that the collection containers are properly separated.

The recovery of biowaste involves the use of methanization or composting. This may require the establishment of contracts with biowaste collection and treatment service providers such as Methappro .

Failure to comply with the provisions of the anti-waste law may result in sanctions that vary depending on the seriousness of the offence, such as administrative fines or criminal sanctions (prison sentences, confiscations, etc.).

Of course, the first step before these obligations is to think about reducing initial waste: optimized stock management, redistribution of unsold items that are still consumable, etc.

Once this optimization is done, the remaining biowaste can find an outlet in methanization. At Methappro we offer different services to create this tailor-made solution: deconditioning, adapted transport logistics, analysis of the methanogenic power of the biowaste, dedicated team to answer your questions... Do not hesitate to contact us for more information at contact@methappro.fr!