THE STORY OF ROUBAIX CASE STUDY #8 Lacking the powers on waste management, Roubaix had to find its own way to zero waste. The town is addressing waste at source, by creating a constellation of actors committed to reducing waste, like families, schools, associations and businesses.

Case study 1 FIRST STEPS

Municipal waste in is collect- shift its neighbouring towns’ posi- ed, managed and treated by associa- tions. Stuck in a low-performing sys- tions of cities and towns. This means tem of separate collection, relying that those willing to mostly on end-of-pipe solutions for transition towards Zero Waste need waste, Roubaix started developing a to count on the support of the neigh- new approach to Zero Waste. bouring towns, or they find them- selves unable to act. The town of Roubaix, situated in THE CITY AS ECOSYSTEM Northern France, just on the border with , isn’t well-known for In order to implement a Zero Waste being a beacon of environmentalism Strategy, Roubaix initiated an origi- in France. Rather on the contrary, nal strategy. Lacking the competenc- Roubaix is a post-industrial area, es of collection and treatment, the considered to be the poorest town in town changed the approach. Rather France, with 46% of people below the than considering waste as a set of poverty line and high unemployment to manage, the strategy rate. However, who said zero waste considered it as the consequence of was reserved for well-off towns? a certain lifestyle and pattern of con- sumption. In this sense, Roubaix’s Roubaix Municipal elections of 2014 were strategy focused, therefore, on the hotly contested in Roubaix with the source of the problem, aiming at de- .> 95.866 inhabitants emergence of four civic lists that veloping a transversal policy. > Part of the Metropolitan were challenging the traditional > Area of (1,1 M inhabitants) parties. One of them, Dynamiques The town is, thus, perceived as an > 13,23 Square km Roubaisiennes ultimately integrat- ecosystem where all actors are re- ed a centre-right coalition that won lated to each other and hence the the elections with the proposal of involvement of all of them is need- implementing a zero waste strategy ed. In this sense, the Zero Waste for Roubaix. Once elected and willing Strategy intends to mobilise citizens, to start moving towards zero waste, small businesses, public authori- Alexandre Garcin, Deputy Mayor for ties, companies, associations and Sustainable Development, got in schools with the aim of creating contact with Zero Waste France and a grassroot movement of citizens participated to a study tour in Con- and stakeholders to leverage a new tarina and Capannori that enhanced dynamic for change. The town hall their commitment to go zero waste. aims at spreading change and new consumption patterns by working Despite this commitment and the hand in hand with all the stakehold- good examples showing the way, ers in Roubaix and with the leading Roubaix found itself in a minority po- example of the that has sition in the Lille Metropolitan Coun- already shifted to zero waste. cil of Waste and couldn’t manage to

Case study 2

© Roubaix City Council ZERO WASTE FOR A NEW URBAN DYNAMIC

For a town like Roubaix that presents several shops taking place across the year. These economic and social challenges, focusing on workshops teach about homemade cleaning waste reduction wasn’t an obvious choice, products and cosmetics, food waste reduc- particularly when the municipality doesn’t tion and composting. Whenever possible, the hold the competences of collection and treat- municipality involves local associations in ment of waste. the training modules. The modules don’t fol- low any specific order but they are repeat- However, because of its characteristics, Rou- ed all over the year to adapt to everyone’s baix wasn’t only sensitive to the topic (prob- rhythm and path to zero waste. lems related to street cleanliness, economic savings for low-income population) but could The challenge of families has been the driv- also benefit from this transition (dynamisa- er of the whole zero waste strategy, as it tion of small businesses, improved welfare, helps creating a critical mass of people in pride about Roubaix and closer link between town leveraging change. At the same time, it citizens and Town Hall). doesn’t only impact those people taking the challenge, but also their neighbours and the In this sense, the zero waste strategy of shops where they buy. Roubaix was crafted to tackle the challeng- es of the town (cleanliness, precariousness), The participants to the challenge are far but also to improve the image and self-per- from being a homogeneous group of people. ception of the town while bringing together Rather on the contrary, the profiles are quite many different actors in this transition. In diverse in terms of age, size of the house- this context, the zero waste policies don’t hold, profession, level of education and level only make part of the environmental agenda, of income, showing that anyone can start its but of the transformation of the town and are own path to zero waste. The proof is that af- highly supported both by the local govern- ter one year 25% of households participating ment and the opposition. managed to reduce their waste generation over 80% and 70% of them reduced it by 50%.

FAMILIES The motivations for taking the challenge were very diverse. Indeed, some participants With the aim of engaging citizens in the move already cared about the environment and de- towards zero waste and of illustrating that it cided to finally take action thanks to the sup- is possible to reduce waste generation sig- port of the municipality, but for many others, nificantly in a sustained way, in early 2015 the motivation for changing their lifestyles, Roubaix launched a 1-year voluntary chal- the search for economic savings or the fact lenge calling on families to halve the waste of taking part in a collective project were de- they produced. 100 households joined the cisive. In the 2016 challenge, 120 households first call. have joined the initiative, many of which af- ter observing the positive changes of their These households were provided with a neighbours and the proof that it was feasible. weighing- scales to measure the non- resid- ual waste they produce and were coached by the municipality with 14 different work-

Case study 3 ANDRÉE, ‘ROUBAIX’S BÉA JOHNSON’

One day, Andrée found in her mailbox Andrée and her family are the vivid a leaflet of info sessions about the example that moving to zero waste zero waste programme. Although isn’t only good for the environment, she wasn’t separating waste at but it also makes economic sense. home before and she was unsure of Zero waste has saved her 250€ a the meaning of zero waste, she de- month in shopping costs. Now mon- cided to give it a chance and attend- ey isn’t a nightmare anymore and ing the info session, after which she they even have a bit of extra dispos- joined the challenge. able income!

She explains that she used to spend For the second intake of participants 500€ in her shopping for three weeks to the challenge, she has coached a and had nothing left for the rest of young student who iswilling to move the month. Food was stocked in the towards zero waste. She also sees fridge and much of it went bad be- some changes in the community fore being eaten. She says it was a around her. She’s optimistic about total nightmare to make ends meet. convincing other people: “There’s no Now, she buys differently, she and need to exaggerate it, it’s a matter her husband grow their own vegeta- of explaining it in a way that people bles and they certainly waste much understand and feel comfortable and less. able to do it. Then, people will start doing it” Andrée and her husband Guy in their ktichen

Case study 4 BIOWASTE

In order to bypass the lack of separate col- bleware for classrooms or specific advice for lection for bio-waste imposed by the Lille school parties, among others. On top of these , the town hall has been actions, master composters are supporting supporting community and home compost- the composting sites at schools. ing. Six different community composting sites exist now and there are plans to sup- The first results are promising. Staff and port new ones. Although some of these were children have integrated the changes and existing before the strategy, the municipality are satisfied. At the same time, parents are has supported the refurbishment when re- starting to talk about the zero waste changes quired (e.g. installation of a source for water). when picking their children up, helping the transition to spread. Now the town hall ex- Those households participating in the chal- pects to prepare specific guidelines on how lenge but lacking a garden have been provid- to go zero waste in schools, with the aim of ed with a tower garden, a vertical composter replicating it more easily and reaching even that has been designed by the municipality beyond Roubaix. to allow both composting and gardening on terrasses without access to the soil. MERCHANTS & BUSINESSES

SCHOOLS The town hall has also engaged directly with merchants and businesses to support The strategy for turning schools towards their transition towards zero waste. On top Zero Waste is aimed, on the one hand, at mi- of working directly with the stalls in public nimising waste from one of the large sources markets to reduce waste and effectively im- of waste in town and, on the other hand, at plement the ban on plastic bags, Roubaix is leveraging changes in families and society by also working with shops, cafés and restau- engaging with children. rants of all kinds to integrate the zero waste Deputy Mayor of Roubaix, Alexan- strategy in their business model. dre Garcin, discusses with Flore Roubaix started with four pilot schools of Berligen, Director of Zero Waste different sizes with a holistic programme. The town hall meets these businesses and France at Capannori’s reuse centre. However specific actions are being taken assess their situation, after which they pro- © Zero Waste France in more schools, with 10 school-canteens pose specific measures to improve their working against food waste and 15 schools waste generation. In parallel, they have having their own composting site. The aim opened a call for projects to support the tran- of the pilot is to gather relevant information sition to selling in bulk. In order to become a and knowledge to roll-out the holistic pro- zero waste business, these have to commit gramme to all the centres of education in to some specific actions that vary depending Roubaix by 2020. on whether the merchant deals with food or not. The actions taken are diverse, but address primarily canteens, with the aim of opti- So far, more than 30 small businesses have mising separate collection, minimising food joined the path towards zero waste and fa- waste and the substitution of single-use ta- cilitate the transition of those already living bleware with reusable (e.g. trays, napkins). zero waste. Indeed, those households taking The actions include the training of up to 150 the challenge receive a voucher equivalent to staff members of school canteens, the in- half their waste fee (150€) to spend in those troduction of a new distribution of separate shops, reinforcing, at the same time, the lo- collection systems, raising awareness of cal economy. separate collection, provision of reusable ta-

Case study 5 ASSOCIATIONS

Civil society and associations of Roubaix also Families taking up the challenge have not make part of the town’s transition towards only reduced their waste generation signifi- zero waste. In this sense, neighbourhood cantly, but also have seen important eco- committees and local associations are sup- nomic savings associated to the zero waste porting and monitoring community compost- lifestyle. A network of actors involved in ing sites, organising repair workshops and moving the town forward is growing fast, supporting the fight against food waste. strong and inter-linked thanks to the support of the municipality and the multi-level action, Furthermore, a Repair Café has recently which is helping to create a social fabric in opened in town, supporting the repairing and town. the reuse of products, while giving value to local knowledge and supporting social ex- Significant media coverage (national and re- changes. gional) for the actions of the municipality and to those families taking up the challenge has served to promote the initiative and frame THE TOWN HALL zero waste as something feasible for the average family, particularly when it is be- In addition to engaging with other stakehold- ing lead by an economically deprived area, ers in the town, the local government em- which supports the momentum the zero phasises its own role in driving the transition. waste movement is living in France. In this sense, the municipality leads by the example by integrating the zero waste strat- At the same time, the town hall acknowledg- egy in all the departments of the town hall, es that something is starting to move within shifting public procurement and making the the Lille Metropolitan Authority and the initial public buildings and offices a model to follow. scepticism about Roubaix’s path has become Likewise, the local government is engaging interest. In fact, the city of Lille is consider- directly with civil servants and making them ing to replicate the challenge of zero waste agents of change of their units and depart- families. ments, being now more than 400 those who have committed to zero waste already. The transition towards zero waste creates a consensus in Roubaix and what is more is managing to project a different vision of the IMPACTS AND RESULTS SO FAR town, based on , social inclu- sion and a dynamic and vibrant social fabric. Although waste management and collec- Now Roubaix is not only contributing France tion hasn’t improved significantly due to path to zero waste but also to portray a new the reluctance of metropolitan authority to image of the city. roll-out bio-waste separate collection and introduce a pay-as-you- throw scheme, so- cietally speaking, the impact in the town has been positive and a new culture of waste is spreading quickly.

Case study 6 CHALLENGES & VISION FORWARD

Despite succeeding in creating a close relationship with those taking grassroot movement of people and up the challenge. New formulas are stakeholders towards zero waste, being considered to complement the the town hall acknowledges several challenge while being able to reach challenges for the coming months to a larger amount of citizens. and years. While Roubaix is supporting the tran- The reluctance from the Metropoli- sition of existing businesses in town, tan Authority to change the model of the municipality keeps receiving pe- collection and management of waste titions of support from new circular remains the major challenge to fully businesses and startups that would move towards zero waste. However, like to set up in the area. Structur- Roubaix will keep pushing for the in- ing this support and finding new re- troduction of separate collection for sources to create a hub for circular bio-waste, to which external obliga- businesses are other of the plans of tions set out in French law and soon the municipality for the upcoming in the Circular Economy Package years. may serve to finally shift the position of the Lille Metropolitan Authority. All in all, the experience of Roubaix proves true the saying “where there At the same time, the successful is a will there is a way” for despite experience with households so far all the difficulties managed to find an opens the door for scaling up the innovative way to work towards zero project with the aim of reaching waste. more citizens, while maintaining a

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Sources Roubaix City Council (www.roubaixzerodechet.fr) Zero Waste France (www.zerowastefrance.org) Case study 7 Zero Waste Europe was created to empower communities to rethink their relationship with the resources.

In a growing number of regions, local groups of individuals, businesses and city officials are taking significant steps towards eliminating waste in our society.

Case study by Ferran Rosa and Laura Chatel Visual design by Petra Jääskeläinen

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