The Paris city government recently launched an initiative in the "2025 Action Plan", calling on citizens to actively participate in the new "waste reduction" plan, including transporting holiday waste to designated areas in parks for recycling, disposing of food waste at sorting points, and sending recyclable materials to waste recycling centers for reuse as much as possible.
According to the plan, the city of Paris aims to reduce the total amount of household waste by 100000 tons by 2030, increase the garbage recycling rate to 60%, and reduce related greenhouse gas emissions by 32%. Antoine Gieu, the deputy mayor responsible for formulating the plan in Paris, emphasized, "We need to change our way of thinking and address issues such as overconsumption, disposable consumption, and planned scrapping by promoting a circular economy and resource reuse.
Since 2006, the city of Paris has implemented three rounds of waste reduction plans, reducing the total amount of household waste by nearly 14%. At present, the city still generates about 1 million tons of garbage annually. According to data released by the French newspaper Le Monde, as of 2023, the per capita garbage generation in Paris is 433 kilograms, which is lower than the national average of 548 kilograms in France, but the effectiveness of garbage classification still needs to be improved. Currently, only 20% of the garbage in Paris is correctly classified, significantly lower than the national average of nearly 50%. One fourth of the yellow recycling bins were rejected due to mixing with household waste. Up to 40% of recyclable materials in non recyclable green trash cans are mistakenly incinerated.
The new version of the "Waste Reduction" plan in Paris focuses on eight action directions and has formulated 24 specific measures. In key areas of governance, the municipal government will strengthen the classification management of food waste, which accounts for 25% of the total waste, in places such as school canteens and catering markets, and continue to improve the terminal facilities for kitchen waste classification. In response to the problem of dispersed responsibility for collective housing waste classification, the city will pilot the "Joint Property Classification Guidance Plan" in more than 20 residential buildings, implementing the renovation of garbage rooms, the addition of classification facilities, the construction of item exchange spaces, etc., and plans to build 1000 "zero waste buildings" by 2030.
In the business sector, Paris will implement a garbage fee reform, providing fee reductions to merchants who perform well in garbage classification, and strengthening supervision and guidance for those who do not meet classification standards. At the same time, relying on the long-standing second-hand commercial tradition in Paris, we will vigorously develop a circular economy and promote the reuse of household goods. At present, the city of Paris has funded the construction of 38 waste recycling centers. The waste recycling center located on Ligole Street in District 20 processes approximately 1.2 tons of daily necessities and clothing per week, of which 57% are resold or donated, 36% go into recycling channels, and only 7% go into non recyclable channels. The municipal government plans to build 12 new waste recycling centers by 2030, achieving the goal of building one waste recycling center for every 50000 people in the area.
Reducing waste, promoting reuse and recycling not only requires the joint efforts of citizens and local public institutions, but also needs to start from the source and integrate green concepts into various aspects of product design and market launch. Antoine Gieu said that Paris' "waste reduction" practice is providing reference for global cities to explore green development paths.
