WASTE PLASTICS RECYCLING A GOOD PRACTICES GUIDE

BY AND FOR LOCAL & REGIONAL AUTHORITIES

SYMIRIS - SYNDICATE OF MUNICIPALITIES OF THE REGION OF RAMBOUILLET

SYMIRIS is the Syndicate of Municipalities of the Region of Rambouillet (77 Department of
Seine et Marne France). It gathers together 183 municipalities, encompassing around
160,000 inhabitants.
From the first of July 2002, Law n 92-646 comes into force which specifies that only final
waste can be landfilled. This is waste that cannot be technically and
economically recycled or recovered any further. The definition of
the ultimate waste is still not well established and can vary from
one departmental waste plan to another.
The president of the SYMIRIS was the promoter of this initiative.
The idea was to extend the logic of selective waste collection to
waste streams other than packaging, and to divert waste from the
incineration. Since 2000, plastics have been collected in the 19
containers parks of SYMIRIS, which are open to private householders, small retailers and
artisans. Materials can be deposited free of charge. All plastics are accepted.
Each container park has a container for plastics. This is transported to the sorting plant of
SYMIRIS where plastics are sorted manually. SYMIRIS recovers the fractions for which
outlets were found: PE films, rigid PE and PP (pieces of garden furniture, bucket, bins), pipes,
windows frames. Most of the plastics present are PP and PE. PE films represent about 50 per
cent of the collected plastics. As the pieces of PVC are usually big, their sorting is easy.
The residual fraction for all the waste plastics is about 30 per cent. The main characteristics
of this fraction are that it is dirty and/or composed of metal inclusions (e.g. screws) and
multi-materials pieces.
Each year 800t plastics are collected. The PVC fraction is marginal, amounting to around
2-3 t/month of post and pre-consumer waste plastic. The first transport of PVC pipes
contained 5.5t from three containers of 30m3 and goes to The Netherlands (Wavin Zwolle).
They are transformed into new pipes (see FKS). The frames are sent in the south of France
(Albaplast Montauban). Frames are more difficult to recycle than pipes because of the
metallic and rubber elements, which must first be separated.
PP and PE elements are sorted by colour and are subsequently granulated by extrusion. These
granulates are commonly used for the fabrication of massive plastic pieces such as fence
posts, garden furniture and lumber. The collection cost, which corresponds to the container
and its site, is 45/t. Transportation from the container parks to the sorting facility also
costs 45/t. The sorting costs are 75/t, which means total costs for SYMIRIS are 165/t.
For PVC, those costs are covered by the French Syndicate of Pipes and Fittings in the framework of a pilot programme of voluntary commitment of the European Plastics Pipe and
Fitting Association (TEPPFA).
The economic logic of funding for the residual fraction is based on avoided costs and
incomes from the sale of sorted materials. The materials are sold for 45 - 60/t, while avoided
costs are 62 for landfilling (plus transportation) or 76 (transportation included) for incineration. Incomes are 107-138, which must be compared with the above recycling costs.
Currently, there are no specific communications made to the public concerning waste plastics collection. Residents learn of the facility when they visit container parks. Professionals
from the retail and small businesses sectors are informed about wastes acceptable in the
container park, through a booklet published by their professional association.

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WASTE PLASTICS RECYCLING A GOOD PRACTICES GUIDE

BY AND FOR LOCAL & REGIONAL AUTHORITIES

ECO PSE (FRANCE)

ECO PSE is the French branch of EUMEPS (European Manufacturers of EPS Packaging,
www.epsrecycling.org), which has the sole objective of collecting EPS. Experience from
commercial collection schemes is being used, in partnership with the L/RAs to develop
collection points of EPS in municipal container parks. ECO PSE, in association with local
authorities, will implement a network of collection points to which small quantities of EPS,
from small businesses or households can be brought.
The collection points are located in container parks or in the transformation plants. In a first
step, ECO PSE wants to develop the collection points near reprocessing facilities, in order to
avoid long transportation (a critical factor with EPS). ECO PSE has designed and built forty
special containers and informative panels on collection of EPS. Currently, they distribute
them free of charge to collection points.
The quality of the EPS collected is usually good. There is a marginal contamination by adhesive
tape and by labels, which can be easily removed. As this experience is recent, no data are
available on the collected quantities.
ECO PSE has financed the design and the construction of specific containers. The price by
container is 460, all included (specific design, informative panel and construction).
In the example below, the recycler has financed the laying out of the Point PSE in the
Municipal Container Park. Nevertheless, the financing of the laying out varies from one case
to an other.
ECO PSE prepared a communication on PSE:
at Pollutec 2000, which is the biggest French environmental fair
through the professional and trade associations. ECO PSE published a booklet for the
newspapers of those associations that have local sections. The folder gives general information on how to establish a collection point and encourages partnership with the
industry
locally, ECO PSE recommends the use of press releases, explaining the type and the quality
of the material accepted as well as the site of collection

Industrial/Commercial Waste Plastics

The collection schemes established for industrial and commercial sectors usually have better results
than for the household waste and municipal waste (from retail, small business). There are two main
reasons for this. Firstly, the waste is concentrated in a reduced number of places; this is in contrast
to household waste arisings, which are geographically more dispersed, making collection more
difficult. Secondly, wastes from industry are cleaner and better identified than wastes from households, which gives a better value to this waste. Nevertheless, some professional sectors, like the
agricultural or construction sectors, do generate quantities of films contaminated by such as earth,
humidity etc. Examples of industrial and commercial collection systems operated by L/RAs are
illustrated below.
Professional sectors generally use the services of private collectors with which they establish
the collection modalities, the quality criteria and the price, however in certain cases, the L/RAs
organise collection schemes using existing facilities and expanding upon the public infrastructure.
Examples of these (see below) include the Province of Namur (Belgium).

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