Saint-Louis urban area. In October, a new recycling center will open in Blotzheim and access badges will be available for each user.
The future Blotzheim/Hésingue West recycling center is taking shape. And the ongoing construction site already provides a glimpse of what this inter-municipal facility will be like, scheduled to open on October 1st . What's already impressive are its dimensions and volumes, which will make it, by far, the largest of the seven recycling centers in the Saint-Louis agglomeration (SLA) area, since it will cover 1.5 hectares. Besides, should we really call it a recycling center? "We named it Recyparc du Liesbach because it won't be just a recycling center; there will be an entire area dedicated to reuse," explains Florian Gutron, director of the agglomeration's household waste department.
Everything has, in fact, been designed to minimize the tonnage of waste collected each year: the user will have to follow a route that necessarily leads them in front of the reuse space building (except for people who come to drop off only green waste and will have a different access). There, the user will be welcomed by a member of a social and solidarity economy association who will be able to diagnose certain equipment, to prevent it from ending up in the dumpster.
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Gaston Latscha (left), SLA vice-president in charge of waste recovery, and Florian Gutron, director of the household waste department, on the construction site of the future Recyparc du Liesbach, which is due to open to the public on October 1. Photo Jean-François Frey
"If the object is reusable and can have a second life, it can then be repaired and resold," says Florian Gutron, detailing the categories that could be affected: furniture, electronic devices, household appliances, children's toys, etc.
The building dedicated to reuse will also include an educational space that will welcome primary and secondary school children, with the aim of "raising their awareness of the importance of sorting and showing them what happens to waste," explains Gaston Latscha, vice-president of SLA in charge of waste recovery.
The Liesbach Recyparc, whose construction and development will have cost 4.2 million euros including tax, will also have additional skips, compared to other waste disposal sites, which will allow for finer, more thorough sorting, and further reduce the volume of final waste, which ends up in the bulky waste skip and is the most expensive to process and incinerate.
In fact, the volume of this waste should decrease considerably, not only because sorting will be better, but also and above all because SLA will introduce, from October 1st , new rules for access to its recycling centers, by granting a badge per household. This secure system will solve a major problem by limiting access to residents residing in one of the 40 municipalities of the Saint-Louis urban area, and only to private individuals. The community has indeed noticed abuses and dubious practices in recent years: some recycling centers are frequented by people who do not live in the area, notably Swiss and Germans, or by unscrupulous people using unmarked vans to get rid of waste generated by companies. Terminals for scanning badges as well as barriers limiting access to vehicles less than 1.90 m are being installed in the urban area's recycling centers and will solve this problem. As for professionals, they will be redirected to a waste disposal center specifically dedicated to them and privately managed. Several candidates have come forward, and such a facility is expected to be built this fall.
An information campaign will be launched in mid-May to invite residents who wish to do so to fill out a form to request their badge. It will be largely paperless, requiring only a QR code to be scanned, although some physical badges will be distributed to those with limited digital skills. "These badges should generate significant savings," estimates Florian Gutron, putting forward the figure of 30 kilos less waste collected per year per inhabitant.
The new Blotzheim/Hésingue waste disposal center will have additional bins to allow users to carry out more in-depth sorting of certain categories of waste. Photo Jean-François Frey
Enough to quickly cover the €150,000 cost of installing the badges in the recycling centers and the IT tools deployed for them. As for the frequency of access to the recycling centers, SLA has taken a broad view, granting 52 visits per year per household, or one per week. "We didn't want to be too restrictive because the goal is to give residents the opportunity to sort their waste as much as possible and take it to the recycling center so it doesn't end up elsewhere," explains Gaston Latscha. "We'll take stock a little later and adjust if necessary."
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Waste collection schedule: an extended test phase
To further reduce waste and encourage more sorting, SLA has been experimenting with a different collection schedule in the commune of Ranspach-le-Haut since 2024, where the municipality had volunteered for this test. Household waste is collected only once every two weeks, instead of once a week in other communes. This change has had the impact of reducing the volume of household waste by almost half, favoring other sorting channels.
The results are so positive that the urban area is considering extending this test phase to three other municipalities, which have also applied: Hésingue, Helfrantzkirch, and Waltenheim. Starting September 1, 2025, the household waste collection schedule will increase to every two weeks for residents of these communities. This change will be implemented smoothly and in consultation with individuals, establishments, businesses, collective housing, and other structures, which may encounter some problems once collections are halved. "The ultimate goal is obviously to standardize this process across all municipalities in the urban area. We will already draw conclusions from the test phase extended to the new municipalities before making the right decision," explains Gaston Latscha, vice-president of SLA in charge of waste recovery.
Sort better to pay less?
Despite the significant investments made in the construction of the new Liesbach Recyparc and in the introduction of access badges and the upgrading of all the urban area's waste disposal sites, SLA residents should not expect to see the amount of household waste they pay annually in their property tax increase. On the contrary: "Everything that is being done is in the direction of ecology and reuse, and ultimately, if there is a real reduction in the volume and cost of waste treatment, we can expect a reduction in the annual amount paid by users," says Gaston Latscha.
Biowaste: very positive initial results
Since January 1, 2024, as required by national law, residents of the municipalities of the Saint-Louis agglomeration (SLA) have been equipped with buckets and bins for biowaste. All of them? Not really. Since residents of the ten municipalities of the former CC3F (Trois frontières Community of Municipalities) have historically still had green bins, which are collected once a week. This system will most likely disappear in the coming years, even if the agglomeration has not officially confirmed this at this time.
In 2025, biowaste bins and buckets will be gradually rolled out in the municipalities of the former CC3F (Bartenheim, Blotzheim, Buschwiller, Hégenheim, Hésingue, Huningue, Kembs, Rosenau, Saint-Louis, and Village-Neuf), which will all be equipped by the end of the year. "The feedback we've had from the municipalities that have been equipped with them for a few months is very positive," says Florian Gutron, director of SLA's household waste department. "We're saving between 10 and 15 kilos of waste per year per inhabitant, which doesn't end up in the household waste bin. It's good for the environment and for our finances, since composting costs us half as much as incineration."
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