French Energy Transition Law for Green Growth and waste management: towards a circular economy?

In 2022, France produced 345 million tonnes of waste. The way this waste is managed has a direct impact on the environment, whether through recycling, landfill or incineration.  Some 30 million tonnes of waste are landfilled or incinerated every year.

As part of the Energy Transition Law for Green Growth, France has set waste management targets for 2025: to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill by 50% compared with 2010, and to achieve a recycling rate of 65% for non-hazardous waste.

In October 2024, the French Minister for Ecological Transition announced a 30% reduction in the amount of waste sent to landfill between 2010 and 2023, highlighting the fact that less and less of this waste is going to landfill, against a backdrop of increasing changes in the General Tax on Polluting Activities.

The General Tax on Polluting Activities, which has an impact on waste treatment costs, has in fact been revised upwards for several years, to better enforce the “polluter pays” principle. This principle will be reinforced in 2025, with the introduction of a TGAP surcharge invoiced on the fraction of waste received in excess of the annual target, for each of the non-hazardous waste storage facilities available in each region.

The aim of this increase is to reduce waste production, encourage the least polluting treatment methods (reduction at source, composting, recycling and recovery) and reduce landfill and incineration.

Regional Waste Prevention and Management Plans therefore play a key role, by setting regional landfill ceilings and reinforcing controls.

In short, the Energy Transition Law for Green Growth and environmental taxation play an important role in helping to reduce landfill waste. But the momentum needs to be stepped up to reach the 2025 targets and prepare for the 2030 and 2035 deadlines*, by limiting waste as a priority and supporting innovations that reduce the carbon impact of waste treatment.

* For the time being, there is only one target for household waste by 2035: a maximum of 10% of household waste can be landfilled. It is essential to define new landfill reduction targets for all non-hazardous waste.

The Energy Transition Law for Green Growth has set a clear goal: to recycle 65% of non-hazardous waste by 2025. But what is the situation today?

In 2022, the recycling rate for non-mineral non-hazardous waste reached 46%, according to data from the French Ministry of Ecological Transition. This result, although up on previous years, was still far from the target to be achieved, at a time when the assessment has not yet been made.

There are many reasons for this: difficulties in improving upstream sorting, a lack of suitable infrastructure in some regions, and the complexity of recovery channels for certain types of waste.

To close this gap, several regulatory measures have recently come into force in France. Since 2024, the obligation to sort bio-waste has been extended to all businesses. The French Anti-Waste for a Circular Economy Law now requires wider sorting, with the introduction of “8-stream” sorting, with separate collection of paper/cardboard, metal, plastic, glass, wood, gypsum waste and mineral fractions, and textile, which has completed the list since early 2025, for Waste from Economic Activities. The aim of this measure is to improve the quality of recycled materials, a key factor in guaranteeing their reintegration into production chains.

Despite the progress made, the transition to sustainable waste management remains incomplete. As the French Environment and Energy Management Agency points out, “the transition to a circular economy cannot succeed without a profound transformation of production and consumption patterns”. France will therefore need to combine innovation, regulation and awareness-raising to meet its commitments.

The next assessment, due in 2025, will be decisive in measuring the effectiveness of existing measures and, if necessary, adjusting the roadmap for the coming decade.

In 2019, Néolithe was born to reduce carbon impact through a new industrial model, transforming non-inert and non-hazardous waste from economic activities into a carbon-storing aggregate used in the composition of non-structural concrete.