Frequently asked questions : Valobat and the Extended Producer Responsibility

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is based on the polluter pays principle. Induced by the anti-waste law for a circular economy (AGEC law), it entrusts the marketers with the responsibility of managing the end-of-life of their products and materials (collection and treatment).

Since February 2020, the anti-waste law for a circular economy (AGEC) aims to significantly reduce waste emissions in order to preserve natural resources and the climate. To achieve its goals, it provides for consumer awareness actions, the exit of disposable plastic, the encouragement of solidarity reuse, the fight against programmed obsolescence and the implementation of eco-design approaches.

An eco-organization works to meet the objectives set by the public authorities through specific specifications: for Valobat, eco-organization of the EPR for the building industry, this is characterized by the development of a network of collection points, but also by the reuse, recycling and recovery of waste. The development of eco-design, the contribution to the reduction of unauthorized dumping, communication and awareness raising are also among the levers Valobat has at its disposal to meet the challenges of circularity in the building industry.

Valobat is the eco-organization of the building industry, responding to the issues addressed by the Extended Producer Responsibility PMCB. We support all the actors of the building industry (manufacturers, distributors, craftsmen, construction companies...) in their regulatory compliance, the implementation of an eco-design approach and the recovery of distributors.
We also support local authorities in their role as project managers and managers of public waste collection centers.

Each eco-organization is approved for one or more product categories in its own EPR.
Eco-organizations can have several operating modes: financial, operational or mixed. Valobat will be financial for the inert, metal and partly wood flows and operational for the others. 

Valobat's ambition is to accelerate the circularity of the sector in order to reach a 100% recovery of building and construction products and materials. Present on all collection channels (building site, distributors, craftsmen's websites...), in support of research and development and sometimes of investment, Valobat's activities are based on three commitments:
- A building orientation: building actors who act only for the building
- The will to address the stakes of all marketers: industrialists, distributors, professional organizations... whatever their size and on all families of products subject to EPR.
- The desire to serve our members by promoting their actions through various communication tools.

In response to its specifications, Valobat's intervention is based on two modalities:
- Operational intervention entrusted by Valobat to waste management professionals for collection, sorting, transport, waste preparation and/or recycling operations. The modalities are based on contracts after open tenders.
- The financial intervention is proposed to the actors collecting separate flows of PMCB waste, provided that they comply with the rules of separate collection and joint collection and that they respect a list of basic criteria, including the criteria of massification, meshing and control of traceability, which are essential for the sector to achieve its objectives. The terms and conditions are based on standard agreements and financing scales based on reference costs.
The combination of these two approaches differs between collection and treatment and according to the categories of LBCPs.

Like all eco-organizations, Valobat will devote the majority of its budget to operational expenses (collection, sorting, treatment costs, etc.) as well as to expenses imposed by the specifications (taking charge of part of the asbestos waste, financing the reduction of illegal dumping, etc.). The other expenses will be divided between the costs of structure, awareness, communication, study and R&D. 

Valobat has developed tools to help you find out if you are concerned by the regulation.
Find out if you are a marketer in the sense of EPR with our dedicated tool.
Find out if your products and materials fall within the scope of PMCB EPR with our online scale.
Still in doubt? Call our Customer Relations Center to clear it up!

All marketers within the meaning of the EPR for the building industry is now obliged to join an eco-organization or to apply for approval of its own individual system.

The law of February 10, 2020 establishes the principle of an EPR for construction products and materials. Manufacturers are therefore obliged to manage the end-of-life of their products, either through an individual system or by paying an eco-contribution to an approved eco-organization for the BMCP sector.

Distributors are subject to eco-contribution for private label products and/or products for which they are the first importer.

The PMCB EPR is the largest EPR ever implemented in France or in the world. The construction industry represents 240 million tons of waste, but construction waste is excluded from the PMCB EPR. It will have to manage 46 million tons of waste, including 15 million tons of construction waste. The overall tonnage is greater than the total amount of household waste and equivalent to the waste from industrial and tertiary companies.

The PMCB EPR concerns the French territory, including DROM COM. As the Environmental Code only concerns French territory, the Principality of Monaco is not concerned by the EPR.

An EPR operates on the principle of declaring the placing on the market. Membership of an eco-organization necessarily implies the realization of this declaration and the payment of the invoices which result from it. Concerned about the inherent management burden for its members, Valobat has worked to minimize it as much as possible by proposing solutions among which an easy to apply scale, requiring only one annual declaration (on the previous year's releases on the market in order to have a basis for invoicing) and a quarterly invoice with an adjustment if necessary at the beginning of the following year, following the final declaration.

The list of eco-organizations is as follows:
Furniture: Eco-mobilier, Valdelia
DIY and garden items: EcoDDS, Ecologic, Eco-mobilier
Sports and leisure items: Ecologic
Pleasure boats: APER
Waste from care activities with infectious risk: DASTRI
Specific diffuse waste: EcoDDS, Ecosystem, PYRéO
WEEE: Ecologic, Ecosystem, SOREN,
Packaging: Citeo, Adelphe, Léko
Oils and lubricants: Cyclevia
Toys: Eco-mobilier
MNU (unused medicines): Cyclamed
Batteries & portable accumulators: Corepile, Screlec
Tyres: Aliapur
Agri-food products: Adivalor
TLC (Textiles, Linens & Footwear): Refashion

Some EPRs were set up following a European directive: packaging, electrical and electronic equipment, batteries and accumulators, automobiles and medicines. Other EPRs were created on the initiative of the French public authorities: graphic paper, tires, textiles, shoes and towels, infectious risk care activities, chemical products, furniture, gas bottles, pleasure and sports boats, cigarette butts, etc.
The sector for construction products and materials is a French initiative.

If several eco-organizations are approved for the same sector, Article R. 541-107 of the Decree of November 27, 2020 states that the specifications may provide for the establishment of a coordinating organization to work on certain issues. For the PMCB sector, article R. 543-290-12 already provides for the missions of this coordinating body. The conditions for approval are specified in the order laying down specifications for the PMCB sector.

The AGEC law required that the EPR applied to PMCBs come into force on January 1, 2022. However, to be able to start operationally, an eco-organization must meet a set of specifications. The latter was published on June 10, 2022. In response, Valobat has submitted its application for approval, which will allow it to officially exercise its role as an eco-organization approved by the public authorities. In addition to its press release of November 2021 indicating that the operational start of the sector was postponed to January 1, 2023, the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion confirmed in a new press release published in June 2022 the postponement "so that the sector can be operational from the beginning of 2023".