Household waste: help standardize the color coding of bins!

AFNOR is calling for participation in order to choose harmonized colors for household waste bins. The deadlines are tight: the government's roadmap for the circular economy sets the deadline for 2022.

Already on the agenda of the Grenelle Environment Forum more than ten years ago, then mentioned in the 2015 Energy Transition Act, the harmonization of household waste bin colors is back in the news. With the government's roadmap for the circular economy (FREC) setting a deadline of 2022 to achieve this, it is high time to reach a national agreement on this issue. Especially since, with the extension of sorting instructions for plastic packaging and the raising of recycling targets, the French are calling for consistency and simplification.

The standardization committee " waste management equipment "launched the project at the end of January 2019, with the aim of finalizing the voluntary standard, numbered XP H96-300, by early 2020. "Container manufacturers are sitting around the table with professional federations, eco-organizations, control bodies, and ADEME," says Paula Castillo, AFNOR project manager in charge of coordinating the project. And what about local authorities? "None have formally committed themselves yet, despite our requests," laments the project manager. "Yet this is a way of directly influencing choices and therefore limiting the costs associated with the gradual and natural renewal of container fleets."

XP H96-300: blue, white, and gray bins

Presented on March 20 to AFNOR's "consumer priorities" working group, which brings together consumer organizations including approved associations, the project's sole objective is to make it easier for French people to sort their waste on a daily basis. In reality, both voluntary drop-off points and lidded bins or containers collected door-to-door vary in color from one city to another. White, green, gray, yellow, blue, brown... Even if certain colors are spontaneously associated with a particular type of waste, such as yellow for recyclable packaging, these variations make it difficult to encourage sorting, as already pointed out by ADEME in 2011.

The future experimental standard XP H96-300, which will be voluntary, should provide answers on this point. The first working meeting of the standardization committee is scheduled for April 3, 2019, at the AFNOR premises. Three other meetings are planned for this year.

Projet de norme XP H96-300 <q> Gestion des déchets – Couleurs de référence identifiant les consignes de tri sur les contenants à déchets </q>