Urban waste : the crisis is getting worse

No solution was planned on the short term for the problem of storage and processing of the 400,000 tons of urban waste the county is stuck with.

What is the solution for urban waste in the Alpes-Maritimes? It isn’t a problem that we could qualify as “sexy”. However, it is still there and it is quite important. A few months ago, the closure of the site of La Glacière, the only current solution for the storage in the west of the county entailed the blocking of the building sites and public works (where could the rubble be stocked?) and compelled the municipalities to find expensive alternatives as a matter of urgency.What is the problem ? For one million tons of « product » wastes within a year, the county is stuck with 400,000 tons because there is no solution of storage or destruction. The situation isn’t a new one. The alarm has been set off a few years ago and the legal psychodrama of La Glaçière has been in the news more than a year ago with a succession of decisions for the opening and the closure of the site. The representatives of the environmental associations and of the administration, with the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes at the head, met yesterday, Tuesday, June 5th at the convention center in Juan-Les-Pins for a day of reflection. They had to agree that far from being settled, the crisis of urban wastes was getting worse.However, everyone stands on its grounds. The environmental protection associations are still against the use of the site of La Glaçière. The counties of the Var and the Bouches-du-Rhône, at the beginning of the summer, don’t want to be in charge of the waste coming from the Alpes-Maritimes anymore, which condemns the alternatives found until now. Each municipality prefers to see the substructures of storage and processing of wastes out of their area. Moreover, the solutions are vague and anyway, they are only planned on the medium or long term: use the inter-municipal links, create recovering and activity complexes at the image of the eco-site planned in Gardanne.There are good ideas indeed. However, what are we going to do of our wastes this summer? The meeting didn’t bring any answer to this. The county will then depend on the trials and the decisions of the justice for or against the opening of La Glaçière. But when will the decision be taken?