The service director, the collection manager, just recruited, the vice-president responsible for sustainable development and the deputy general director of the Agglo were present to accompany the agents on this first day under the colors of Grand Cognac and their have the final documents signed.
Six recycling centers and six trucks passed through Grand Cognac
“Everything is ready, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work. It’s two years of work that has come to fruition, notes Pascale Belle, the vice-president of Grand Cognac. It had been voted on by a large majority, so there was the desire and the need. We're going to be more close. » The agglomeration voted to end its partnership with Calitom, the departmental household waste recovery union, two years ago, almost to the day, on December 14, 2022, by 81%.
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“We are going to be more close. »
“We worked well until January 31. That day, we transferred the trucks from the Sainte-Sévère site [site d’enfouissement de Calitom, NDLR] at our Jarnac site,” explains Stéphane Landier, director of the collection department. Six recycling centers and six trucks (four household waste skips, a crane truck for buried voluntary collection points, or PDAV, and a “mule”, a replacement truck) went from Calitom to Grand Cognac.
27 agents also changed employers, mainly collection and recycling agents. “We have experienced drivers,” emphasizes Pascale Belle. The main thing was that the agents felt good and that it was transparent for those administered. » The only inhabitants whose collection days have been modified are those of Genté and Bréville, and the place called “Orlut”, in Val-de-Cognac.
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Experienced agents
That morning, for this first collection, seven agents took their places in three trucks. The inaugural tour took them to Nercillac, Boutiers and Saint-Brice for some, and Saint-Sulpice and Sainte-Sévère for others. “I know my tours, I could take them in any direction,” says Anthony Bouston, a driver for three and a half years, after having been a ripper for almost four years.
“I wasn't worried about transferring. »
With Florent and Jimmy, his two colleagues in the back of the truck, he will do the tour between Sainte-Sévère and Saint-Sulpice. At each trash can, a stop. “We have to keep an eye out everywhere, on the traffic, on the rippers, on the trash cans and in the night, it's not easy. »
Bins, bags, the rippers collect all types of trash, in the 54 municipalities of Grand Cognac.
Quentin Petit
During his tour, he covers between 80 and 100 kilometers per day at the wheel of his 26-tonne, “never full”. Then head to Sainte-Sévère to empty the truck then return to Jarnac to wash it and refuel. “It doesn’t change anything at all for us. For the moment, we have the same hiring conditions as Calitom. I wasn't worried about being transferred; Grand Cognac is a sure value. » Without bonuses, this agent earns €1,400 per month for 4 days of work per week.
The only thing he would like to see change: that users place the trash cans so that they are as visible as possible on the side of the road, “especially when they are individual bags, and they are in grass.”
Savings in sight for the Agglo?
By voting to leave Calitom, Grand Cognac hopes to save money. Maybe not the first year but the ones after that. In 2024, the Agglomeration paid more than seven million euros to the departmental union for collection and three million for waste treatment, or more than 10 million euros. “This year, we kept the same budgets, because we have to put everything in place. The goal will be to reduce the bill,” points out Pascale Belle. Among the reduction options put forward: “users and municipalities are asking us to only come every two weeks, and we are going to carry out collective work within Grand Cognac to see how to reduce costs”. In this transfer, the agglomeration has retained the contract signed with Paprec, which takes care of the collection of yellow bins and part of household waste.
