“There is no subject that affects more people.” Stéphan Champagne makes no mistake. The vice-president of Grand Paris Seine et Oise had been planning for two years to rethink the rules for waste collection, before this fateful date of October 1: it has been a little over a week since this reorganization took effect in the 73 municipalities of the territory.
Let’s go back a year. In October 2023, the urban community announced the harmonization of TEOM (Household Waste Removal Tax) rates, around 4 rates for as many levels of services. “It is the fruit of the work of a group of elected officials representative of the former EPCI and the various unions,” says Stéphan Champagne. We had 30 different TEOM rates. The law required us to standardize these rates before 2027, and we had an obligation to bring a little justice between the different municipalities.” Indeed, while some municipalities paid just 4% TEOM, others had to pay 11%. “And it is not necessarily the one who paid the most who had the most services,” underlines the deputy vice-president for waste management. This injustice had to be remedied.”
Since October 1, the rate ranges from 6.52% for the 9 municipalities which have chosen the lowest level of service, to 7.95% for the 20 towns and villages which have opted for the highest level. Of the 73 municipalities that make up the urban community, 14 have chosen to take a higher service, and 10 have lowered their level of service. “Some did it out of environmental conviction, others not, everyone has their own history.”
Tough negotiations have been necessary over the last 2 years to arrive at this new distribution. “We went to a conference of mayors several times to explain our approach,” remembers Stéphan Champagne. We went before the community council twice for a vote of intent in June of last year, and a more definitive vote a year ago. If we reach almost unanimity on this, it is because everyone understands that something has to be done. I’m not saying that everyone benefits from it and that it’s great for every mayor, but everyone understood that we couldn’t leave things as they are.”
If the status quo was not possible – beyond the fact that the law recommended harmonization before 2027 – it was also for financial reasons. “The waste budget was in deficit of 16 million euros,” recalls the president of GPSEO, Cécile Zammit-Popescu. In order not to put too much pressure on household taxation, the choice was made to continue to carry 8 million of the deficit of this budget through the general budget, whereas normally, the waste budget must be financed 100% by the revenue of the TEOM […]. With service levels as they existed, the TEOM rate which allowed the budget to be balanced was 9.36, so we were above everything we offer today. Residents must understand that they were paying a tax that absolutely did not correspond to the cost of the service.”
To make their choice among the different levels of services, the mayors of the municipalities of the territory have sometimes given control to their constituents with, among other things, surveys and public consultations. “It gave results that were perhaps not those they expected,” says the president of GPSEO, Cécile Zammit-Popescu. But they respected the results of their poll.”
These disruptions to our daily habits can be difficult to understand. It is for this reason that the urban community has, for the occasion, launched a new application intended to facilitate access to information related to waste collection. Soberly called “GPSEO Waste Info”, this allows you to consult all the services for your address, locate the nearest collection points, or even consult your collection schedule. “We are changing services for almost all municipalities, it is an extremely daily subject,” recognizes Stéphan Champagne. And changing your habits is very complicated. The application aims to support citizens in this change.”
Notifications even allow you to be warned in real time in the event of make-up tours or bad weather. However, residents who swear by their paper calendar can always print it from the GPSEO website.
The other advantage of this application, which has already proven itself in other cities such as Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines or Boucles de Seine, is the pedagogy. “You can find information there, particularly on what we do with your waste: what happens once I put my trash can on the sidewalk? People don’t necessarily know, and yet that’s where it gets interesting. We still have the treatment behind it, serious environmental and economic issues…”
Environmental issues, in fact, will motivate a large number of investments in the years to come. There are, moreover, which have already started, with the annual purchase of composters, the cost of which is 80% covered by the urban community. “There are other major investments to come on which we will have to plan, including the development of voluntary contribution points for the municipalities which wish it, particularly in the city centers where it already exists, which will ultimately create operating savings,” anticipates Cécile Zammit-Popescu.
The modernization of recycling centers is, to the same extent, a regular investment which tends to encourage residents to favor voluntary door-to-door delivery. That of Orgeval is the latest to benefit from this facelift, after Aubergenville and Limay more recently, which will allow it to acquire, among other things, automatic access by reading number plates, better security and allow more fluid deposits. Before that of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine next year.
