Mornac (France) (AFP)

Walls of waste block the entrances to the company, rubbish lines the lawns: the sorting center of Mornac, near Angoulême (Charente), where recycling of bins should be valued, looks more and more like a open dump.

It is in Atrion, the second center of New Aquitaine by size, that the product of sorting of all the Charente and half of the Charente-Maritime arrives.

But in the parking lot normally used by heavy goods vehicles, dozens of tonnes of this sort pile up, which should have been stored in the huge hangars and no longer find space there.

Atrion, which receives more than 800 tonnes of paper, cardboard, aluminum, steel, etc. every week, simply cannot sell its goods.

"They now feed their recycling circuit solely thanks to their domestic economy. There are no more outlets," he adds.

Traditionally, newspapers and boxes go to large paper mills, but again, the sector in difficulty does not allow the stock to be sold, like the UPM factory in Chapelle-Darblay (Seine-Maritime), threatened with closure in June and which halved its production.

- A falling price -

For now, Atrion still manages to sell its JRM bullets (newspapers, magazines, magazines) to a Spanish industry but for a paltry sum, adds the director.

Because the quantity of waste has exploded so much that the price per tonne has melted, divided by five since the announcement of the authorities in Beijing.

The "wholesale store" (GM: poor quality cardboard and paper) initially stored in the 2,100 m2 of warehouses, has simply become unsaleable.

"We have transferred waste that does not fear water like plastics and steel to the outside, but that was not enough. Of the 800 tonnes of GM already in stock, part is unprotected. After a few rains, it will be unusable, "warns Mr. Filippi.

Not to mention the danger of vehicles that cannot circulate properly or the risk of fire.

The company therefore asked the prefecture for an exemption to bury its unsold goods - the environmental code prohibits burying recyclable products - enough to make the ecologists and more generally the people who sort conscientiously.

"It's sad," says Philippi, who in 2020 will have to get rid of 4,000 tonnes of GM.

The prefecture has just refused, but is proposing an incineration if all the recycling or disposal routes prove to be in vain.

Atrion is not alone in this situation.

According to figures from Federec (Professional Federation of Recycling Companies) which estimates that 8.5 million tonnes of stock will not be able to be sold this year, around 32% of sorting centers are in a critical situation.

"The South West is particularly affected, Brittany will soon experience the same fate," said Stéphane Panou, its vice-president in charge of paper and cardboard.

With digital, the consumption of graphic paper has dropped by 47% in 10 years, but new avenues are being explored.

We could thus, he says, burn recyclable paper in incinerators "to produce energy or include it in a biomass process" or store more outside while waiting to find new outlets, such as papermaking. toilet.

© 2020 AFP