Erm. What happens to our waste after it has been collected? How is sorting done? What can be evaluated? To answer these questions, Scherwiller’s SMICTOM has opened its doors to us. Including those of their new industry-dedicated waste fuel production unit, which replaces their final landfill facility.
71000 tons per year. Glass, plastic, metal, household waste: the waste of the inhabitants of 90 municipalities in central Alsace passes through Scherwiller’s SMICTOM (Syndicat Mixte Intercommunal pour la Collection et le Treatment des Garbage Ménagères), to be sorted or incinerated. Upstairs, recyclers sort the materials by hand, at a steady pace, before this waste returns to the optical sorting machines at full speed. Outside, large parcels of recycled and compressed cans, bottles or cartons are waiting to be sent to recycling companies.
Around the site, on the other hand, there is no smell… the visitor must already get close to the pit for the sacks of household waste to tickle his nostrils. Our guides explain that after some complaints from local residents, drastic efforts have been made to avoid annoying odors.
The same applies to the former Non-Hazardous Waste Storage Center (CSDND), in Châtenois. This is closed since 1is October 2022, as the prefectural authorization has expired. “In 2016, we invested 1.6 million euros to solve the odor problem, which the inhabitants reproached us for,” explains Christian Ottenwaelder, vice president of SMICTOM. “Today the final waste is covered with several layers of clay, with waterproof properties, geotextile and loam. »
In the bowels of the hill in the centre, from 25 to 30 meters of non-recyclable waste from the separate collection centers of the network. For example, some plastics, industrial furniture remains, wood… Since 1979, these tons have accumulated in several wells, carefully monitored by a technician. This controls gas emissions, some of which can cause spontaneous fires or bad smells.
As regards the final waste, an alternative treatment solution had to be found. This is the production of CSR, recovered solid fuel. 8000 tons per year are processed and processed in a new unit built for this purpose in Pfastatt by the Bohn + Schroll group. At the end of the chain, small pieces of material, which will be used, among others, by a nylon production plant, as the site’s operations director, Jean-Pierre Jacquemet explains to us: “this alternative fuel will be used to supply the Chalampé site petrochemical and produce steam to replace fossil fuels”.
A solution three times more expensive than landfill, but the best to date, assures us Jean-Pierre Piela, president of SMICTOM. “Either we made fuel, or we shipped our waste to another storage center in Lorraine, which also entailed higher costs,” he explains. And creating new from the old, isn’t that the trend?
