the essential
With an average of 83 kg of household packaging and paper sorted per inhabitant per year, Gers is well above the regional average.
The people of Gers are quite well aware of sorting their household waste. In any case, this is what the company Citeo, specializing in the recycling of household packaging and graphic papers, highlights in a study recently made public.
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Last year, each Gersois sorted on average 82.7 kg of household and paper packaging, “an overall performance up slightly by 0.7% compared to 2022 with a significant increase in the sorting of light packaging of almost 13% compared to 2022”, as specified the press release. “This is a good figure for the Occitanie region,” underlines Antoine André, regional director of Citeo.
For comparison, residents of the region have in fact sorted on average 74.5 kg of household packaging and paper per inhabitant in 2023.In detail, this concerns 60 kg of household packaging – light packaging and glass – (+ 3.6% vs. 2022) and 14.5 kg of paper (-3.4% vs. 2022). These figures are evolving with an increase of more than 14% in the sorting of light packaging (steel, aluminum, cardboard, plastic), including in particular an increase of + 23% in the sorting of plastic packaging,” specifies the company.
“This makes a European and French recycling industry work”
To explain this good habit adopted by the Gersois, Antoine André cites the simplification of the sorting instructions, introduced in 2012 in the department, when other departments in France only applied it last year. “The Gersois were therefore pioneers in this area, which explains the interesting performances,” observes the regional director.
Antoine André also targets current initiatives favorable to the positive development of waste sorting in the Gers, starting with the creation of the Masseube interdepartmental sorting center, work on which was launched this summer. “It’s very positive and it allows us to have a modern tool which will improve working conditions and which will further improve the department’s sorting performance,” he explains. The incentive pricing deployed by Sidel in Lomagne Gers is another advantage highlighted by Citeo. “This creates a correlation between waste pricing and waste production,” agrees Antoine André.
If waste sorting therefore seems well anchored in the daily life of the Gersois, there is no question of resting on its achievements. Antoine André reminds in this regard that “99% of the packaging that is put in the yellow bin is recycled in France and in Europe”. “We have this interest in sorting because behind it, it makes a European and French recycling industry work. It also makes it possible to reduce the use of natural resources. Recycling really has an interest in the environmental impact,” he concludes. .
