The waste management market in France

Waste management covers all operations relating to waste generated by human activity. It involves the collection, transportation, treatment, reuse, disposal or storage of waste. It has a scientific name: rudology, which can be defined as the systematic study of waste.

The latest World Bank report estimates global waste production at 2.01 billion tonnes. There are, however, major disparities in the origin of this waste, with its production not proportional to the population of the world's different regions, bearing witness to certain inequalities. In 2018, only 13.5% of this waste was recycled, and much of it was dumped wildly in nature and the oceans, demonstrating the need for waste management on a global scale. In 2023, these findings are still true: the World Bank has not issued a new report on global waste production, but the COVID-19 crisis has turned global waste production upside down.

In 2023, in Europe, France is the 2ᵉ country producing the most waste, behind Germany. The management of these millions of tons of waste generates billions of euros in sales, growing by 11.2% for the European Union and 21% for France between 2016 and 2018. France, however, saw a 1.2% drop in sales between 2019 and 2020, heavily impacted by the closure of 95% of its drop-off centers and 60% of its sorting centers during the March 2020 containment period.

Current trends in waste sorting and reduction, reinforced by legal incentives such as the 2020 AGEC law, could modify business, by reducing the annual volume of waste, which could have a negative impact on sales.however, the know-how required to deal with new types of waste, such as WEEE, and the increasing scarcity of raw materials will tend to increase the value of each individual.