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LES ALCHIMISTES: facilitators in the treatment of food waste

4. Environment

Waste management

Sector Agriculture
Year 2022
Country France
Transmitter Réseau Alliances

Context

By 31/12/2023, the anti-waste law will require all professionals and communities to implement a food waste management system.

Therefore, since 2016 the Alchemists of Hauts-de-France have been offering professionals and private individuals solutions for collecting and composting bio-waste. This waste is collected locally and turned into compost to enrich and fertilize the soil.

Sustainable for the environment, this activity also has a strong social impact because it creates local and sustainable employment

In addition, the company offers numerous workshops and visits to the Alchemists site to raise awareness of waste sorting and composting.

By designing a solution on a micro-industrial scale, close to the waste producers, Les Alchimistes is trying to create an alternative that cannot be ignored so that soon no more bio-waste will end up in incineration.

Objectives

  • To become a reference player for the collection and recovery of food waste on a regional scale.
  • Create sustainable employment
  • Achieve a positive carbon balance and hectares of soil nourished each year.

APPROACH

Les Alchimistes offers effective solutions for the treatment of food waste, which is a real resource for the soil. The company collects bio-waste (peelings, vegetables, fish heads, etc.) locally and directly from its customers. The collection is done by bicycle trailers or light ecological vehicles in order to avoid pollution during transportation.

Once collected, the waste is transported to one of Les Alchimistes composting sites. The material is then pressed, crushed and mixed to become compost which is then sold to businesses, or urban farms, market gardeners, or even individuals.

  • The company's activity creates employment at the local level. We can count about 6 jobs created for 1000 tons of composted waste.
  • The awareness-raising aspect is also essential for Les Alchimistes. Indeed, the people of Lille can, for example, visit the composting site in order to become aware of the issues involved in treating food waste.
  • In addition, customers are accompanied in their sorting process. Les Alchimistes install the necessary signage for them and train the teams on the issues of sorting, recycling and composting.

The company plans to deploy 5 micro-industrial composting units over the next 5 years.

CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE

  • Winner of the Trophées de l'Économie Responsable
  • 70% of Alchemists' revenue comes from waste collection and processing, and 30% from compost sales.

Benefits

  • Improvement of soil quality through composting.
  • Reuse of compost allows for a combination of circular economy and local economy.
  • Reduction of CO2 emissions
  • Creation of employment

Les Alchimistes

Mise à jour le 08/04/2022

Creative Commons Attribution This work by Réseau Alliances – World Forum Lille is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.