About Eco-Emballages

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Welcome to our English-speaking visitors. Please find hereafter some answers to frequently asked questions about Eco-Emballages.

 

In one sentence...

Eco-Emballages is a private company accredited by the French public authorities to install, organise and optimise sorting and selective collection of household packaging.

 

When and by whom was the system founded?

Eco-Emballages S.A. is based on the Lalonde Decree No. 92-377 on Household Packaging Waste of 1 April 1992. It states that a company should be established to take over the collecting and recycling of household packaging. Moreover, the filling industry and importers should accept responsibility for their packaged products. At the same time, the local authorities retain their traditional responsibility for waste management.

The system started business operation on 12 November 1992. Eco-Emballages was created on the initiative of industry and approved by the French Government. The shareholders of the company are product and packaging material manufacturers, importers and trading companies.

 

What is the status of Eco-Emballages?

Eco-Emballages is a private, non-profit company.

 

How many regular members of staff are employed?

182 (2007).

 

How does Eco-Emballages collaborate with local authorities?

Eco-Emballages provides financial and technical support to the local authorities which undertake the selective collection and valorisation of household packaging waste. Eco-Emballages also provides a guaranteed recovery for all the secondary materials conform to the contractual quality standards.   

 

Who finances the system?

The system is financed mainly by fillers, distributors and importers of household products who pay a license fee for the use of the Green Dot trademark. On average, companies contribute 0.6 eurocents per package.

 

How many licensees/members does the system have?

22,197 licensees’ contracts representing 47,000 companies (2007).

 

What are the prerequisites a company has to fulfil to become a member/licensee of the system?

All companies responsible for marketing or introducing a packaged product may fulfill their legal requirement by joining Eco-Emballages.

 

What types of packaging are concerned?

"Packaging of which end-users are households" (Decree 92-377).

1. Packaging on products:

• sold or provided free of charge (samples...)
• marketed through distribution channels traditionnaly or exceptionnaly open to households: retail stores, wholesalers...
• distributed by mail-order or door-to-door
• sold in vending machines, gas stations...
• conditionned at the point of sale

2. Packaging to serve the consumer

3. Check-out carrier bags

 

What does the “Green Dot” mean?

The “Green Dot” logo on a package means that the company putting this product on the market contributes financially to its related waste management. It is not a sorting instruction and it does not mean that the product or the package should be sorted separately, nor that it will be recycled.

 

How much is the system available and accepted?

At the end of 2007, 98 % of French people were able to sort their packaging waste.

A citizen produces 353 kg a year of domestic refuse, 86 kg of which consists of domestic packaging waste.

On average, they sort 40 kg of domestic packaging waste a year, but their performance varies according to the type of accommodation:

• urban: 28 kg a year;
• semi-urban: 49 kg a year;
• semi-rural: 58 kg a year;
• rural: 61 kg a year.

The average rejection rate is close to 19%.

 

What are the French recycling performances in 2007?

The volume of domestic packaging contributed is 4.7 Mt.

Recovery rate (aggregates recycling and incineration with energy recovery): 77% of the total volume (3.6 Mt)
Recycling rate: 61% of the total volume (2.8 Mt).

Recycling performance by material (as a percentage of the total volume) :

• Steel: 109%
• Aluminium: 28%
• Paper-card: 55%
• Plastic: 21%
• Glass: 75%

 

Contacts

ECO-EMBALLAGES S.A.
50 boulevard Haussemann 75009 Paris, France
Phone: +33-1 81.6906.00, Fax: +33-1 81.69.07.47
info@ecoemballages.fr