The Rouen Normandie Metropolis is located in the north-west of France. It covers 663m² bordered by the Seine, halfway between Paris and the sea. The Metropolis is made up of 71 municipalities, sharing the main responsibilities of public action from regional planning to the management of services to citizens. 500,000 inhabitants live there. But the Rouen Normandie Metropolis, as the regional administrative and economic capital of Normandy, extends its influence over a much larger territory comprising 800,000 inhabitants and 330,000 jobs.

Its territory is diverse, both industrial and urban, but also rural, rich in its historical, natural, river and forest heritage. As the leading regional employment hub, the Metropolis is at the heart of a strong economic dynamic and is positioned as a pioneer territory in the social-ecological transition.

We asked Olivier Gregoris, Director of Waste Management, a few questions.

ACR+: How do you see your membership to ACR+ contributing in your strong ambition in terms of ecological transition?
O.G.: Our membership to ACR + can help our territory's transition to a circular economy, particularly in terms of waste management, including aspects digitization and methanization, social and solidarity economy and resource centers, pollution control and recycling of polluted soils. Working in a network, exchanging information and experiences with other members having similar problems can thus enrich our reflection.
 
ACR+: Talking about waste management, in February last year the French government set a new target of reducing by 15% the quantities of household and similar waste between 2010 and 2030. How do you position yourself regarding this target?
O.G.: We have in fact many actions which contribute to reducing the production of waste, in order to try to meet this national objective. If the share of “household waste” in “household and similar waste” fell from 54.2% to 48%, the overall curve does not meet the expected decrease. Thus, we have implemented the following:

  • A Local Plan for the Prevention of Household and Similar Waste over 6 years: with actions towards fermentable waste (organic and green waste), businesses, public works buildings and the fight against food waste;
  • The Boost Plan in partnership with the eco-organization CITEO and the deposit-reward of sorting;
  • A Cleanliness Plan for city centre to coordinate everybody’s actions: elected officials (including those from sectors), communication department, behavioral department, waste department, local center, service provider, city (technical services, communication, ticketing agents …); separate collection of cartons from traders, in gentle mobility (bicycle and electric vehicle).

 
ACR+: Are there some particular challenges on your way to meet the target?
O.G.: The main challenges are related to maintaining plants on the producer's plot (crushing, mulching, plant underlay, etc.) and the sorting habit, because performances are not good, particularly in collective and social housing. It is therefore about changing behavior. Another issue is the choice of the fuel collection method for the collection vehicles and the energy production chain from waste (gas, hydrogen, etc.), to achieve a closed loop.
 
ACR+: You mentioned the sorting habit. Could you tell us more about that, as we heard that you have an interesting experience to share in this regard.
O.G.: Sorting is the inhabitants' first environmental gesture. Yet in practice, only 1 in 4 people sort consistently and without error. The main reasons for this lag are the lack of information and incentive to do the right thing. Digitalisation is an essential lever to meet this environmental challenge. This is why, we launched last March the "Montri" (Mysorting) application, in 5 municipalities in our territory. This application, which can be downloaded free of charge, aims to enable the territory to improve its sorting performance and optimize waste management by offering residents a simple and educational tool allowing them to find the nearest collection points, inform about collection times, scan an item to learn about sorting instructions and thus reduce errors. The experiment also included, in the Rouen sector only, a collaborative tool: a module for managing requests and reports (request for a new bin, report of littering, collection anomaly or damaged collection points) as well as a space reserved for businesses and professionals report on problems and send requests. Building on its success, this application was extended to the entire metropolitan area in July. Indeed, the feedback from this experiment is very satisfactory with nearly 2,000 downloads. In addition, with nearly 400 reports made and taken care of by the Metropolitan Area, the complementary collaborative reporting module has proven its usefulness and its efficient management by the metropolitan services. This option has therefore been extended to all 71 municipalities. This innovative application is one of the many building blocks of our “Cleanliness Plan”.
 

Back to News

We use cookies to improve your experience on our website. By browsing this website, you agree to our use of cookies.