End of March, the Parisian garbage collectors’ strike against the pension reform was a very good way to realize this. In the piles of waste that were being created all over the capital, boxes occupied a good place, symbols of the place now taken by e-commerce in our consumption patterns.
In 2021, 1.7 billion parcels were distributed or exported in Francewhich is 14.9% more than in 2019, according to theRegulatory Authority for Electronic Communications, Posts and Press Distribution (Arcep). And we would still be far from the peak, while the Federation of e-commerce and distance selling (Fevad) expects e-commerce to represent 20% of retail trade in France in 2030… compared to 14% in 2022.
Still far from the European objectives on the cardboard
Inevitably, this growth drives up the overall number of cartons placed on the market each year in France. “Around 1.2 million tonnes, and there should be at least 500,000 tonnes more by 2030”, indicates Anne-Sophie Louvel, director of operations and territories at the Citeo eco-organization*.
A wound in waste management in France? On the one hand, “the box is easily identifiable, we normally all know what it is, which should make it possible to avoid sorting errors”, slips Anne-Sophie Louvel. Direction the selective sorting bin, the one where we put the waste that can be recycled. The yellow trash can in most communities. Once in the right place, cardboard is also not the material that poses the greatest concern to recycle. Placed in a pulper, a large pot where it is mixed with water, it is transformed into a paste which will be used, among other things, to make new boxes.
However, in France, the cardboard recycling rate is “only” 66% (European methodology). This is better than plastic (23%) but less than glass (85%). It is above all less than the recycling objectives that the European Union asks of France to reach by 2030: 85%. It is therefore necessary to gain nearly 20 points in seven years. And the explosion of e-commerce is not helping, quite the contrary. “Yellow bins, like the sorting bins that some communities install on the road, were not designed to cope with these new consumption patterns,” explains Anne-Sophie Louvel.
Take the boxes out of the sorting bins?
All you need is a few boxes to saturate these containers and leave no room for other packaging. The surplus then often lands at the foot of the garbage cans, at the risk of becoming abandoned waste. Or ends up in the gray bin, that of household waste, with leftover meals and other bio-waste. Not the best idea, dirt and humidity being the two biggest enemies of cardboard recycling. “We find 800,000 tonnes of cardboard in household waste every year,” laments Citéo’s operations and territories director.
A mess that has prompted some communities to act by installing specific bins for boxes, as there are already voluntary drop-off points on glass. It is the choice made by the community of communes of Montélimar (Drome), which has installed 171 cardboard columns since 2018. “The device has made it possible to collect 250 tonnes in 2018 and 442 tonnes in 2022, with the advantage that they are in very good condition for recycling, reports Yves Levêque, vice-president in charge of waste. And if we continue to find boxes in the wrong places, it’s much less than before. »
And why not reuse e-commerce?
Citéo has around sixty communities that have made the same choice and calls for the generalization of this solution wherever possible. “This would earn six points out of the 20 that remain to be won, calculates the eco-organism.
Not unusual then. But this solution does not prevent, at the same time, trying to go further by reducing the flow of boxes generated at the source. Not only will these famous 85% be easier to achieve, “but we also avoid greenhouse gas emissions”, assures Anne-Sophie Raoult.
With Léa Got, the Havraise co-founded Hipli, start-up that offers reusable parcels for e-commerce (and also rewarded by Citéo). Since July 2021, Hipli has offered four package formats corresponding to the most used templates. Except that those of Hipli are in polypropylene (PP), “a flexible plastic that offered the best resistance to labels and repetitive washing while being recyclable when it truly reaches the end of its life,” explains the entrepreneur. Not before a hundred trips, the average lifespan of these packages expected by Hipli, which makes it possible to avoid a total of 25 kg of waste, calculates the young company.
“Our veteran parcel is at 110 trips”
The circuit always leaves from Le Havre, from where Hipli dispatches its 450,000 parcels according to needs of its 350 e-commerce customers, from ready-to-wear brands to Qwetch water bottles and CDiscount. “Our parcels are therefore used to deliver their own customers, explains Anne-Sophie Raout. The latter only have to fold the package until it can fit in a pre-paid pocket provided with it, then slip it into a mailbox, and everything comes back to us in Le Havre. Shared with the mail, the return only generates 20 g of CO2, eleven times less than the production of a new box, assures Hipli. All that remains is to wash the package, repair it if necessary, affix a new label, and it’s ready to go again.
This loop requires everyone to play the game. who claims to have lost few parcels on the way so far. “Our ‘veteran’ already has 110 journeys on the clock, and we now provide a million shipments a year,” she says.
The Agec law to bring everyone into line
Certainly, it remains a drop of water on the billion parcels sent each year in France. But Hipli is doing its part (of the hummingbird) and plans to grow well, aiming for 4 million shipments in 2024, including expanding into Belgium. And the start-up is not the only one to have entered the niche. About thirty do the same in Europe. Of which Opopopanother Frenchie.
Above all, we should not forget the Agec law of February 2020 which requires that 5% of packaging put on the market be reusable in 2025, and 10% in 2027. “Many believe that the measure only applies to the food sector, but that also applies to e-commerce”, recalls Anne – Sophie Raoult.