Montpellier wants "incentive pricing" on waste

A trash can, in the Ecusson, in Montpellier (illustration) -

• The Montpellier metropolis wants "incentive pricing" on waste.

• The idea is to ensure that part of the bill for residents of the metropolitan areas is based on the amount of waste they have produced.

• But some elected officials fear that the most modest will be penalized.

The less you throw away, the less you pay.

And vice versa.

The metropolis of Montpellier (Hérault) wishes to set up “incentive pricing” on waste.

A measure that the president of the community, Michaël Delafosse (PS), had defended during the municipal campaign.

The metropolis assures us: it is by no means a new tax, but a “new way of calculating waste invoicing”.

The metropolitan council voted on Monday to launch a study in this direction.

The idea is to ensure that part of the bill for residents of the metropolitan municipalities is based on the amount of waste they have produced (on weight or volume), to reward those who demonstrate virtuous behavior.

And encourage others to get started.

“Today, those who are virtuous, who sort their waste, who make an effort, are considered in the same way as those who are vicious, deplores Michaël Delafosse.

We must recognize those who adopt the right actions.

"

First a "white year"

This device, indicates the metropolis of Montpellier, will be installed “initially without impact on the real amount paid by the households, just as an indication.

Then after a "blank year" ", the principle should be adopted.

It remains to be seen how this system will be put in place.

Is the metropolis going to put its nose, in the true sense of the word, in the rubbish of the inhabitants?

So far, nothing has been stopped.

In a note published in 2019, the Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe), indicates that it is, for example, possible to equip bins with electronic chips capable of identifying the quantities of waste. thrown away, or to computer “weigh” the user's bags when they are put in the dumpster.

Or even to offer prepaid bags to residents.

The study will allow, notes François Vasquez (various), vice-president of the metropolis in charge of waste recovery, to define “the technical and human resources” that will have to be implemented.

11 million euros each year for the export of waste

The metropolis of Montpellier now spends nearly 11 million euros each year to export its waste.

"A financial and environmental impasse," notes the community, which hopes that "incentive pricing" will reduce the volume of its waste by 40% within three years.

In France, other communities have implemented, or are in the process of implementing, similar pricing.

This is the case in Grenoble.

And no doubt, soon in Lyon, as

indicated

on September 11.

For Hervé Martin (PC), the effort is “commendable”.

"But when we talk about household waste, before being household, this waste was produced by industrialists and passed into the hands of distributors," explains the elected Communist to the metropolis.

Users must not be victims of the misdeeds of mass distribution, which sells them waste, and then that we are going to tax that waste.

I am thinking, in particular, of the people who are most in difficulty, and who very often go to do their shopping in discount supermarkets.

When there are a lot of us in a small apartment, it is still much more difficult to sort than when there are fewer of us, in a house with a garden.

"

“Antisocial” aspects

For her part, if Alenka Doulain (We are), shares the ambition of the metropolis to "drastically" reduce the production of waste, she also expresses "serious doubts" about the measure.

Like Hervé Martin, she points to the possibility that it poses problems of equity, because "all households are not equal with regard to the production of waste".

This measure "could have antisocial aspects", indicates the elected.

"Social justice, we obviously have it in mind at all times, there is no question of penalizing large families or families with modest incomes," assures François Vasquez.

This pricing will not clear anybody, there will be a fixed part, for example 60%, but there will be a variable part.

And the variable part will be there to enhance the sorting gesture.

The metropolis also promises that a "broad consultation" will however be put in place with the mayors and residents before this new pricing is adopted.

Because it would be, it is true, a small revolution.

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