The current conditions of maritime transport for which Reunion is paying the price, and which promise to be durable, have been blocking for months the export of Reunion waste which must be treated in mainland France or is recycled in various countries. This situation constrains the sectors, and businesses, to build up stocks of waste while waiting for a solution.
One hundred thousand tonnes of waste are exported each year from Reunion. Towards the Metropolis for the treatment of hazardous waste. To South Africa for glass recycling, to Turkey and India for plastic recycling, etc. Waste is the second largest export item behind sugar. This shows the problem posed by the current impossibility of exporting this waste due to the impact of freight and the lack of ships.. This worrying subject justified the organization of a round table in addition to the assessment of the REP sectors. In the presence of Erika Bareigts, mayor of Saint-Denis, former Secretary of State for Real Equality and Minister for Overseas Territories in the government of François Hollande. Erika Bareigts did not fail to point out that, under his ministry, freight assistance had been put in place, from which the export of waste could have perfectly benefited. But this help, Réunion never implemented it, unlike the West Indies.
Temporary solutions under study
The question of immobilizing waste raises the more strategic question of the maritime autonomy of the island. How to give Réunion a certain latitude in matters of maritime transport ? By chartering ships ? By creating a regional shipping company ? The Réunion Region says it is currently looking into the issue. Waiting, sectors are forced to keep their waste. Their stocks are such that several of them have announced that they are stopping their collections and asking companies to store their waste themselves while waiting for a solution to be found.. Or ces stocks, by accumulating, do not go without posing another problem : that of the legal responsibility of the waste producer in the event of pollution, especially with regard to hazardous waste. Hence the need to find temporary solutions. The proposal of one or more monitored temporary storage areas seems the most realistic in the short term..
