This year, more than three quarters of French communities want to increase the tax on household waste by 5%. At least one in two is even considering an increase of more than 10%, according to a survey that an association has carried out with local authorities, town halls or agglomerations such as Vannes, Clermont-Ferrand, Toulon which have already planned increases.
This household waste collection tax is paid by the owners, in addition to the property tax – it is on the same tax notice – but when they rent their property, the owners pass it on to the tenants. Its amount depends on the type of property, its situation and each year the local authorities review the levy rate. It is at this moment that the budgets are decided.
However, collecting garbage is becoming more and more expensive for communities and once again, it is due to the war in Ukraine and the resulting increase in energy costs. It is necessary to put gasoline in the trucks which collect the dustbins and as the fuel costs more! Same thing for waste sorting centers, it’s very robotic, it’s stuffed with electronics, you need electricity to run the sites. All this increases the expenses of municipalities or agglomerations.
This time, it is a tax decided by the government, by the State, but paid by the communities. It is a tax on the storage and disposal of waste, in other words a tax on landfills.
It brings in overall 600 million euros in revenue per year to the State and in three years, it has more than doubled. It went from 25 to 54 euros per ton. This additional cost, the communities here too pass it on to the households. Especially since many of them complain of having lost revenue with the abolition of the housing tax, they therefore seek to compensate by all means.