NATIONAL SURVEY OF DOMESTIC MANAGEMENT OF ORGANIC WASTE Abstract September 2008 Study realised for ADEME by INDDIGO and LH2
National survey of domestic management of organic waste Stéphane OLIVIER et Agnès DEMOLLES 04 79 70 99 36 s.olivier@trivalor.fr Abstract Véronique ROYNÉ et Mylène REBERT 01 55 33 20 44 veronique.royne@lh2.fr OBJECTIVE. After having been for a long time considered as insignificant, home composting is now recognised and is the object of a national programme launched in November 2007 and managed by the ADEME. Figurehead of the prevention of organic waste, home composting is part of a wider and more ancient reality: domestic management. This includes practices as diverse as composting, making a pile at the end of the garden, burning in the open air or in a hearth or wood stove, mulching in the garden, feeding domestic animals or giving to neighbours. No study had yet assessed the frequency of these practices on a national level. That is why, in a context where real waste reduction objectives are assigned to home composting, the ADEME wished to assess the extent, the nature and the evolution in time of domestic management practices over the whole of French territory through a telephone survey on a representative sample of households (mainland France and overseas territories). METHOD: The national survey was made by the LH2 institute on a sample representative of the French population of 18 years and over in terms of gender, age, socio-professional category of head of household, rurality/town size and region. 1137 interviews (including 100 in overseas territories) were conducted by telephone (hub CATI LH2) between March 25 th and April 7 th 2008. The questionnaire lasted about 15 minutes. The sample was weighted to ensure the correct proportion of the different housing types (56% individual houses, 44% flats, according to INSEE), and to allow for the true proportion of inhabitants of the French overseas territories. Warning. This survey comes up with frequencies of declared behaviour. Although these frequencies can help in the estimation of mass flows, they are not equivalent to a quantitative indication of waste flows. WHAT DO THE RESULTS SHOW US ON THE NATIONAL LEVEL? Domestic management of organic wastes is a reality for 62% of the French population (kitchen waste) and 70% of those having a garden (green waste). It covers solutions as diverse as animal feed, leaving grass cuttings on the lawn, spreading wood ash or composting. This diversity requires a different approach according to the categories of waste. For kitchen waste: Over all types of housing it emerges that: 25% of households manage mainly at home the most voluminous categories of kitchen waste (peelings, spoiled fruit or vegetables, meat scraps). Composting is the priority solution for plant-derived waste (18% of households state this as the priority solution) whilst animal food is the top destination for meat scraps (19% of households). Naturally, the type of housing strongly influences these practices: 35 43% of house-dwellers manage mainly at home the most voluminous categories of kitchen waste (peelings, spoiled fruit or vegetables, meat scraps), whilst only 9 to 10% of flat-dwellers do so. 00001974-D03-CH-0803199-SO-JOR INDDIGO SAS / LH2 September 2008 p 1/5
This figure, higher than the average over all housing types, is explained mainly by a higher use of composting (31-32% of house-dwellers) and animal feed (31% of house-dwellers give meat scraps to animals). In individual housing, only 53-55% of households throw their peelings or spoilt fruit in the dustbin (60% bin meat scraps). Change of behaviour. Although the ways of managing kitchen waste remain well-established (84% of households have always done things this way), some changes are apparent: 11% of households claim to have modified their kitchen waste management practices in the last 5 years and 8% notice a decrease in waste thrown into the dustbin. This decrease is materialised either by a dustbin that is less full (noticed by 61% of new managers ) or by a dustbin that is presented for collection less often (noticed by 41%). Using these elements as a basis, it is possible to estimate the impact on the mass flow of waste (for a population of 62 million): The bibliographical data indicate that kitchen waste quantities can be cautiously estimated at 40 kg/psn/yr on average. On this basis, for 25% of the population, the annual quantity managed at home comes to 0.62 million tons, or 3% of the total household waste collected in 2005. On the same basis, the waste corresponding to the 8% of the French population who have modified their behaviour in the last 5 years (with a fall in the quantities thrown in the dustbin) can be estimated at 0.2 million tons, or 1% of the total household waste collected in 2005. For garden waste: The figures cover only people with gardens, so 54% of households (greenwaste from leisure gardens) and 22% of households (vegetable plots). The waste from vegetable plots is mostly managed at home (81% of households with vegetable plots) and often by composting (67%). Only 3% of these households throw this waste into the dustbin. For greenwaste (only households owning a garden are counted here) practices are different for branches and clippings on the one hand and the other garden wastes on the other hand. For lawn mowings, leaves, weeds or annual plants when finished, the practices are quite similar: - civic amenity site for about one quarter of households, and domestic management around 50% for mowings and 40% for the other wastes. - All these wastes are composted by about 30% of households. - The additional 10% of domestic management for mowings are linked to the practice of lawn mulching (grasscycling), i.e. leaving the mowings on the lawn (18% of households). - Open burning or dumping in local landfill involves about 5% of households for lawn mowings and up to 10% for the other wastes. For branches and small clippings there is: - more frequent use of the civic amenity site (one third of households); - considerably more open-air burning (about 20% of households); - domestic management according to «good practices» for about 15% (9% composting for small clippings and 10% firewood for the branches). Finally, around 12% of households with gardens recycle all these categories of garden waste through separate collection of green waste (28% in the Paris Region, where these collections are more widespread, and 10% in the rest of the country). Changes in behaviour. As for kitchen waste, the methods for managing garden waste are well-established and are a question of habit (86% of garden owners have always done things this way), but changes are appearing: 9% of households have modified their garden waste management practices in the last 5 years and more than 2/3 of those now manage greater volumes at home. The impact of domestic management of greenwaste on waste flows is very tricky to estimate, since both garden size and garden waste production rates are very variable from 00001974-D03-CH-0803199-SO-JOR INDDIGO SAS / LH2 September 2008 p 2/5
one situation to another. The method proposed takes the observed collection rates: considering that only 35 to 44% of green waste producers use civic amenity sites or separate greenwaste collections, and taking the 2005 figures (cf. ADEME national survey) of 56 kg/psn/yr (civic amenity sites and separate collections), it seems probable that domestically managed greenwaste represents a tonnage at least equal to that collected separately and treated in collective units today, or 3.5 million tons. Organisation and quality of composting The extent of composting is assessed by whether a household composts at least one type of waste from the kitchen, the garden or the house: 34% of households, or around 9 million, claim to practice composting according to this definition. However, only half of these compost waste from all the three categories, about 15% of the population. Two main methods of composting are identified (expressed as percentage of composting households): composting in heaps which predominates (64%) and composting in bins which only represents 36% of composting households. The compost bin is often acquired by new converts, for only 35% of households who acquired a compost bin actually composted before. Among these people, most (74%) abandoned their old composting method when they acquired a bin. This would seem to be because of their satisfaction with their new equipment, since 58% of new users of compost bins find positive aspects and only 2% mention negative aspects. What waste is composted? (in percentage of composting households): Meat and fish scraps are very rarely composted (8% of households), The waste most often composted comes from the vegetable plot, the garden or the kitchen. For this waste, differences are observed according to the equipment used: - Composting in heaps is less likely to involve kitchen waste (42 to 46% of heap users) than bin composting (57 to 70% of bin users) - On the other hand, mowings are more frequently composted by heap users (56%) than by bin adepts (44%). Similar figures are observed (60% and 40% respectively) for weeds and leaves which, unlike kitchen waste, are voluminous but not alien to the garden landscape. - Similarly, used paper hankies are more often composted by bin users (8%) than by heap users (1%). Monitoring the composting process: 72% of households compost without any particular monitoring, a figure to be considered in parallel with the high percentage of composting in heaps, which requires less maintenance: only 20% of heap users follow the process compared to 50% of bin users. Nevertheless, as many households monitor their compost among heap users as bin users (14% of the total composting population in each case). Hygiene in the collecting phase: Several questions attempted to clarify how kitchen waste is managed before composting. According to the users' declarations, the practices seem to be satisfactory: The kitchen waste destined for composting is most often kept in an open or closed bucket which is emptied within 3 days for ¾ of users. Over a third of users keep these buckets in the kitchen and 63% wash them each time they empty them. Use of the compost: The compost is used by 8 households in 10, and among the reasons cited for not using compost, poor quality involves only 7% of the non-users. Considering that most users have been composting for a long time, it is reasonable to assume that they find the quality of the compost satisfactory. 00001974-D03-CH-0803199-SO-JOR INDDIGO SAS / LH2 September 2008 p 3/5
Intentions to modify behaviour: these tend in general towards better practices but not necessarily towards more domestic management: If 13% of households state they are prepared to compost their kitchen waste more often...... and 13% of households state they are prepared to burn their greenwaste less often...... almost as many households state they are prepared to take their greenwaste more often to the civic amenity site as those prepared to burn it less often : it seems as if the destination 'civic amenity site' is set to replace burning! Finally, a minority of households envisage getting an animal to maintain the garden (4% of households overall and 6% of those in rural areas)! Population types A typology was drawn up based on behaviour concerning kitchen and house waste, defining 'types' of people with similar behaviour; this brings out key points which could be acted on to improve things: 11% of French citizens are nature and animal people: - Their behaviour is linked to a certain lifestyle, close to nature - Living in the country in individual houses, they throw almost no kitchen waste into the dustbin because they feed domestic animals with it (poultry, pets...) - They compost greenwaste in heaps but also often burn it (40%) and do not on the whole envisage changing this habit - This group is no older than the national average 17% of citizens are gardeners : - Their domestic management falls into the logic of looking after the garden - Also living in the country in individual houses, they tend their vegetable garden and usually compost, but 1/3 of them only started recently - Many of them envisage composting more kitchen waste - This group is slightly older than average 17% of the population are eco-resistors : - older, not professionally active and often living alone, they sort neither their packaging waste nor their kitchen waste - These people definitely do not envisage composting their kitchen waste - They are people who do not produce a lot of waste and who probably 'don't bother to sort'. Finally, 47% could be called public service - A group made up mostly of individuals who follow the local waste collection policies and use the facilities put in place by the local authority - This first step towards managing their waste (since it implies sorting and not just throwing everything in the dustbin) is not however accompanied by domestic management - Living often in flat without a garden, they sort their packaging waste and newspapers but 80% throw their kitchen waste into the dustbin - Many do not envisage composting their kitchen waste Among those having a garden, more than the national average use the services of the civic amenity site. 00001974-D03-CH-0803199-SO-JOR INDDIGO SAS / LH2 September 2008 p 4/5
Conclusion This survey shows that domestic management is a real management option for household organic waste. Altogether, kitchen and garden waste managed at home represent 4,120,000 ton/yr, a mass flow equivalent to the household waste organics collected by the public service for recycling. Whilst it mostly corresponds to long-standing habits, it is worth noting that these good habits are not being lost, and are even finding new converts. The present level of domestic management as principal method of managing the most voluminous categories of kitchen waste is around 25% of households as a national average and about 40% for individual housing. This level can be compared with the aim of getting about 50% of house-dwellers composting which many of the latest generation of County Household Waste Disposal Programmes set themselves: they will need to be more ambitious to develop domestic management further! Concerning greenwaste, the survey shows that more than half of households which produce such waste manage it domestically (composting for vegetable garden waste, leaves and mowings, or mulching). The civic amenity sites remain a priority outlet for woody waste but only 1/3 of households with a garden use them for this type of waste (20 to 25% for the other types of garden waste). Burning and local landfill (a few percent) are still used by 20% of households producing branches or clippings. The domestic management of garden waste is estimated at 3,500,000 tons. The tonnages in civic amenity sites can still increase, notably taking account of the stated intentions (of 13% of households with gardens) of decreasing their burning of branches, and the difficulty of managing them at home without a shredder (or without a wood-burning stove or hearth: 20% of households equipped with these use branches for firewood). 00001974-D03-CH-0803199-SO-JOR INDDIGO SAS / LH2 September 2008 p 5/5