This increase is due in particular to better collection of plastic packaging and cardboard.

At the end of November,Citeo published new data on packaging sorting practices in France. The statistics point to a marked improvement in this area.

‘ In 2023, each French person sorted an average of 58 kg of household packaging, 1.5 kg more than the previous year. This performance was driven by a sharp increase in the collection of plastic packaging (+15%) and cardboard (+12%), which were better sorted in the yellow bin. As a direct consequence, the recycling rate for packaging has also risen, reaching 67% nationally (…) In addition to preserving natural resources, 2.3 million tonnes of CO2 have been avoided in the atmosphere, the equivalent of 8400 return trips from Paris to New York ’, summarises Citeo, which points out that this sorting breaks down into 25 kg of light packaging (steel, aluminium, cardboard, plastic) and 33 kg of glass packaging.

At the same time, alongside household packaging, the French sorted an average of 14 kg of graphic paper in 2023, 7% less than in 2022.

Further levers

For Citeo, these good results are primarily due to the simplification of the sorting process. ‘ In the first quarter of 2023, 15 million more people in France had access to this system, enabling sorting and collection of plastic packaging to be stepped up,’ explains Citeo, which notes, however, that there are still a number of levers that need to be activated to improve these results even further: “accelerating the roll-out of incentive-based pricing; scaling up the recycling and reuse deposit; eliminating unnecessary packaging; launching the development of separate drop-off collection of cardboard; developing sorting and collection outside the home, etc.”.

Note: results vary widely from one region to another, from 47.5 kg per inhabitant sorted in Ile-de-France to 103.5 kg sorted in Brittany.

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