Nearly 30% of the waste thrown in the yellow bins of the department, normally devoted to packaging and paper, is not recycled because it is poorly sorted. Sydetom 66 warns about this problem and calls on the inhabitants of the Pyrénées-Orientales to take more responsibility.
“If the Catalans sorted better, we would make significant savings”. This is the reflection of Fernand Roig, president of Sydetom 66, faced with a simple observation: there are too many errors in terms of sorting in the yellow bins of the department, which not only result in an impact on the environment, but also at the financial level.
“What must be remembered is that if we do not know, we put in the gray bin, that of household waste”, adds Fernand Roig. Because an error in the yellow bin can impact the entire chain, right up to the sorting center. “We found some of these things on the carpet … Horse heads, animal corpses, weapons, mechanical parts …” When this kind of material is discovered, the entire waste trailer goes to incineration, at a significant cost to the Sydetom. “Between the displacement for nothing, the incineration, then the transport to the landfill, we end up with a ton of garbage that costs three to four times more than it should have. being recycled is lost, so it is in addition as much revenue that is not made thanks to the recovery of waste “, adds the president of the union. This year, the sorting center refused around 9,000 tonnes of waste. Result, annual losses “a million euros, at least”, laments Fernand Roig.
“Lack of civility, even lack of respect”
If the Sydetom elected officials are willing to recognize that these are often errors made in good faith, they do not fail to point out the incivism that may be hidden behind this problem: “Sometimes it’s just someone who doesn’t care, or someone else who saw a full bin and threw their trash in the one next door without asking any questions. lack of civility, I think we can also speak of a lack of respect for the valorists who work at the Calce sorting center “, annoys Bruno Valiente, 1st vice-president of Sydetom 66.
Between 2006 and 2020, Sydetom noted a sharp increase in sorting errors, reaching 29.16% in the yellow bins last year: “The good news, or less bad, is that this rate stabilizes in 2021, reaching 28.15%”, notes Nicolas Barthe, vice-president of Sydetom 66 in charge of the selective collection commission. To overcome this problem, the Sydetom 66 regularly launches communication campaigns for users: “But we notice that when we release communication, the efficiency of sorting also slackens”, underlines Jean-Louis Aliet, vice-president of communication.
For the time being, the question of possible financial sanctions is not on the agenda: “We prefer to stay in the positive, raising awareness and promoting good work”, note Bruno Valiente. “But we must realize that if the Sydetom pays more to treat the waste, these costs will necessarily be passed on to the local authorities, which themselves will pass them on to the household waste collection tax”, warns Fernand Roig.
50,000 hours of work lost in 2020 due to poor sorting of healthcare waste
“Every year, we collect 3,000 tonnes of infectious-risk healthcare waste, entrusted by the hospitals and clinics of the department, but also those of Aude, west of Hérault, and east of Haute. -Garonne. We collect them from professionals to avoid any problem “, explains Fernand Roig, president of Sydetom 66. The problem is when this waste comes from people on self-medication: “For example, a person has diabetes, and uses several needles a day. She knows that these needles can be dangerous, and collects them in a plastic bottle. When throwing them away, she thinks that everything is recyclable, and throws them away. all in a dumpster. And when the bottle is collected and compacted in the truck, it bursts, and you end up with hundreds of little needles on the sorting belt “, he adds. It is out of the question to run the slightest risk to the valuers of Calce: “We stop the carpet, and they are recovered one by one with the tweezers”. In 2020, business stoppages for this type of cause generated a loss of 50,000 hours of work. “At 30 € per hour including charges, we lose 1.5 M €”, exposes Fernand Roig.
–
–
What to put in the yellow bin?
In 2022, Sydetom 66 will deploy 250,000 disks to help users sort their waste correctly. The yellow bins should only accommodate well emptied and crushed packaging, as well as papers, nothing else. They should be thrown loose, not in a bag. They must not be nested either: when the skips are emptied, the trucks compact the waste to optimize space and therefore avoid unnecessary transport as much as possible. When the packaging is compacted and nested, it can no longer be separated and therefore sorted. Household waste should not be thrown in the yellow bins either. They can contaminate the rest of the waste, and make it impossible to recycle. Miscellaneous objects should not be put in the yellow bin either, but brought to the recycling center.
–
–
–
