The “Pooltry Feed Company” is part of the Sarthe group and European leader in poultry LDC. The chicken carcass recycling plant established in Vaiges in Mayenne for 4 years has been criticized by local residents for the nauseating odors emanating from it. New investments are announced by the group’s management.
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Located between Le Mans and Laval, the factory established since March 2020 in the small town of Vaiges is mainly talked about for its bad odors from which residents of the factory but also residents of the surrounding towns suffer.
In this factory, animal food is manufactured from the carcasses of poultry used in the rest of the factories of the Sarthe food group LDC, the European leader in the sector which continues to expand.
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The president of one of the most active associations in the fight against its nuisances meets us in the town of Nuillé, a few kilometers west of the PFC factory.
“The town of Nuillé is 1.5 km from the factory, which is in this direction, towards the east“, explains the president of the Association for the Protection of the Vaige and Ouette valley.
“The prevailing winds, coming from the east, bring the odors and fumes from the factory into the village, into the farms and houses that are nearby.“, adds Bertrand Bouflet.
“The problem is that it doesn’t warn, it’s a bit like everything or anytime“, explain the president of the association for the preservation of the Vaige and Ouette valley about bad smells.
” It can be a morning, an afternoon, it can be in the evening, it can be a weekend too, it happens“, he explains.
We sometimes have difficulty staying outside for lunch or dinner if the fumes are present, it’s even quite unbearable. We must not forget that these are smells that are close to rotting corpses.
Bertrand Boufletpresident of the Association for the Protection of the Vaige and Ouette valley regarding bad odors
“It’s extremely unpleasant to live with on a daily basis.“, concludes the head of the Mayenne association who opened a Facebook group to relay his speech.
Concerns shared by other associations such as the Mayenne Environment Federation but also the Prefecture of Mayenne which has given notice to the company PFC from August 23, 2021 to comply with the olfactory nuisances generated by its activity.
The management of PFC, for its part, decided to open the Vaiges factory to the press for the first time to praise its products such as this bag of leftover chicken feathers transformed into protein.
“This is poultry feather protein.“, explains, bag in hand, the quality and environment manager at PFC.
“It was heat treated, very gently to keep all its protein properties and it went through the mill so it was crushed and sifted. It is ready to be sold as raw material“, continues Flavie Guimbert, quality and environment manager at PFC.
“It is a raw material that we will sell to industries which will make either pellets or kibble for cats and dogs. Cis an alternative to soy which is much more ecological than this one, to the extent that we do not act for deforestation“, argues the quality and environment manager.
The factory management ensures that it recycles 30% of poultry waste and transforms nearly 150,000 tonnes of waste each year.
An energy-intensive recovery of water, particularly in an attempt to treat the odor released. No results so far.
The Nantes administrative court even canceled on March 27, 2024 the prefectural order authorizing the operation of the factory issued on March 2, 2020.
PFC and the Mayenne prefecture appealed the decision of the administrative court.
The report by Louise-Anne Delaune and Florie Cotenceau edited by Alexis Legrand
The factory has invested nearly 2 million euros in a filter that it plans to improve.
“Here are the two pipes which capture all the air from the factory“, explains Nicolas Fabre, the site director.
“This air passes through a deodorization system with a first washing step by shower and a second step of passing through a biofilter. These are moist tree barks which capture odorous molecules. Then the air escapes through these two chimneys“, assure Nicolas Fabre, director of PFC Vaiges.
On a technical level, there are machines to promote the proper functioning of this deodorization installation. The two levers are mainly the reduction of load and the reduction of the temperature of this load.
Nicolas Fabredirector of PFC Vaiges
“The zero smell does not exist“, specifies Nicolas Fabre. “But in any case my objective is to meet the requirements of local residents while also taking into account the regulations“, he assures.
Efforts which are far from convincing the surrounding residents.
Affected for 4 years now by its nuisance, they learned during a committee monitoring the file on October 16, 2024 that the company announced at least two more years of work.
“We’re taking it back for two years“, notes, bitterly, the president of the Association for the Protection of the Vaige and Ouette valleys.
Psychologically people are devastated. There are burnouts, there are people who have left, who have sold their homes. We are in a social situation of total non-acceptance of this factory as it is. We are obviously waiting for things to progress, the problem is that it is very slow.
Bertrand Boufletpresident of the Association for the Protection of the Vaige and Ouette valleys.
Pending the next appeal judgment against the decision of the Nantes administrative court, the company benefits from an operating authorization until April 2025.
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