Introducing our stakeholders - France

The second International learning event of the CAPonLITTER project took place on Thursday 9 of July and was organized by the bulgarian partner PP4. Because of the worldwide sanitary crisis, this ILE was divided in two parts (first part by visioconference: 09/07/2020, second part: 06/2021). All the partners thus attended the first part of the ILE#2, which aims at presenting the best practices of each country on the specific topic “Beach waste management, with a focus on waste disposal and collection aspects”. The event gathered specialists from all the partners countries.

Julien Loubet-Loche (CITEO) and Jean-Marc Sanchez (Aix-Marseille Provence Métropole) were the two selected french stakeholders attending the ILE#2 alongside with MerTerre (PP7).

Isabelle Poitou (head of MerTerre, PP7) and the two French stakeholders (from left to right: Julien Loubet-Loche, Jean-Marc Sanchez) participating to the ILE#2. ©MerTerre

Julien Loubet-Loche is the Head of Operation at the South-East Regional Direction of CITEO.

Citeo was created by businesses to reduce the environmental impact of their packaging materials and paper by transforming them into resources. With its subsidiary Adelphe, Citeo provides advice and solutions to its customers — manufacturers, businesses, distributors and consumer services — to help them affordably meet their responsibilities related to end-of-life packaging materials and paper. More than 28 years, businesses have invested more than €11 billion to finance selective collection and to create recycling industries with municipalities and industrial and operating partners. Today, 70,3% of packaging materials and 57,4% of paper are recycled in France thanks to sorting, which has become the No. 1 community action for the environment. Acting to achieve real savings in resources in France, Citeo has set itself three priorities: simplify sorting to enable all French people to sort all their packaging and paper; innovate to invent new materials, recycling technologies, collection solutions and markets; and reduce the environmental impact of packaging and paper by supporting companies in implementing eco-design more widely.

Since 2018, Citeo has experimented in Marseille the installation of around thirty sorting points, large "bin shelters" placed on most of the city's beaches. They sort glass, light packaging (cardboard, metal, plastic bottles and flasks) and paper, as well as disposing of household waste. The advantage of this solution is that it makes it possible to respond better to peaks in traffic, to avoid take-offs and above all to allow sorting at all times, while clearly simplifying the gesture for beach users. These initiatives are acclaimed by the inhabitants, they contribute to lasting behavior change and to make the coastline cleaner. Over 37 tonnes of packaging have been collected on the beaches in 2 years (2018/2019), which corresponds to more than 200,000 plastic bottles (equivalent to a 20,000 car journey kms), more than 150,000 metal cans (equivalent to 1,200 scooters) and more than 40,000 glass bottles (equivalent to 33,300 new remanufactured glass bottles).

Jean-Marc Sanchez is the Head of the Department waste collection and disposal of the Aix-Marseille-Provence Métropole. This local community ensures the collection and the treatment of waste. Its objective is to take up the challenge of reducing waste at source. Each territory of the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolitan area is responsible for collecting household waste deposited in bins. All of them also organise selective collection which aims to separate what can be recycled (packaging, metals, food bricks, cardboard, paper), to recover organic household waste via composting and, finally, to collect the household waste that cannot be recycled (films, plastic bags and other refusals from previous channels...). The virtuous circle also consists of producing less waste thanks to responsible purchasing (less packaging), avoiding waste, repairing and reusing (via specifically designed centres), composting, etc.

Key numbers about the waste collected by Aix-Marseille Provence Métropole:

Amount of waste produced per year inside the Aix-Marseille Provence Métropole: 1 210 530 tonnes (643 kg per inhabitant per year)
Recovery rate of waste: 31,3 %
47 disposal sites
17 transfer centers

AMPM and CITEO work and in hand to make Marseille cleaner. To support the development of the service settled by CITEO and presented below, Aix-Marseille-Provence Métropole has reinforced its collection resources and the presence of roadmender. These initiatives, which have been acclaimed by residents, are helping to support a lasting change in behaviour in order to make the coastline cleaner.