Allô Déchets: the spirit of sustainable development

« The job placement association is actually turning into a job placement business: it's bringing on extra capabilities to carry out its role as a springboard to a steady job. I think it's important that we help, especially since our relationship with it is longstanding: its employees who are in the same businesses as we are have already done short-term traineeships with us. »

Thierry Brideron

Not so easy, maybe even impossible, when you're old or handicapped or just don't have a car, to bring your green rubbish to the special environmental rubbish bins.
In Fontainebleau and the surrounding area, the 22 townships of the Inter-municipal syndicate Smictom provide a solution to this problem by setting up a service called "Hello Rubbish" ("Allô Déchets"). With just a telephone call, people can have their oversized rubbish taken away.
AIP REFON (Association d'Insertion Professionnelle de la Région de Fontainebleau) is a job placement service that is responsible for the project, which was introduced as an experiment in the beginning of 2005 in the first five towns and then extended to all 22 towns by the end of 2006. The project met three goals: creating entry-level jobs, three in 2005 and six more in 2007; meeting the collection needs of people with restricted mobility or limited means; and fighting against "wildcat" rubbish drops, by collection oversized rubbish at the individual's home and not at the roadside.
 

A new activity to finance

The "Allô Déchets" service made it possible to create entry-level jobs and meet the needs of people with limited mobility.

Previously, the Association had already looked after the delivery and maintenance of rubbish collection bags, installing individual compactors or collecting used batteries, before embarking on this new activity.
Yet AlP REFON had to buy and kit out another two bungalows, alter part of its existing premises, buy two suitable vehicles and purchase equipment for collection and materials handling, office furniture, plus several IT workstations.
Total investment: over €120,000.

Along with the Regional Council of Ile-de-France, the Area Council of Seine-et-Marne and other donors, the Veolia foundation participated in the project with a €50,000 grant.

Collecting WEEE: further diversification
 

In 2006, AIP REFON further diversified its operating capability to the collection of WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) of 107 communes with two household waste collection agencies.
In 2007, the Veolia foundation gave it a second grant for the installation of a workshop to clean up and dismantle the screens recovered from the equipment collected.