General Information
The adventure began in 1992 with a target set by the Government to recover 75 % of household packaging by the year 2002, answering by this alternative to the German solution - DSD - and the limits to free-trade coming from other material regulations. That was the year companies came to an agreement with the authorities to take responsibility for recovering their product packaging. The programme was an ambitious one that could only work with the support of local authorities, consumers, recyclers and ordinary citizens. One main principle was that of sharing responsibility and cost of selective collection.
The decree of 1 April 1992 stipulates that any person responsible for first placing on the market packaged products used by households must contribute to or provide for the disposal of their used packaging. This decree has been in force since 1 January 1993. Eco-Emballages has developed the French answer prior to the packaging directive adopted on 20 December 1994.
Eco-Emballages offers the local authorities, responsible of household waste management, a pragmatic solution to the question of how to valorise household packaging waste: Eco-Emballages provides financial and technical support to the local authorities which undertake the selective collection and valorisation of household packaging waste. Eco-Emballages provides also a take-back guarantee for all the secondary materials conform to the contractual quality standards.
On the same conditions, a second compliance scheme named Adelphe - coming from sector of wine and spirits - has been set up with agreement of the French ministries.
