The financial threat past, Smepe can face the future with complete peace of mind

President Fabrice Fenoy (r.) and vice-president of finance Olivier Penin, reassured not to go to the cash register. A.C.

The mixed union between Pic and Étang, which processes waste from six intercommunities, will not have to pay the painful bill amounting to 24 million euros. which weighed on his head. This is what Bercy decided at the end of March.

The bill could have been hefty. But what paid off was the mobilization of the vice-presidents of the Joint Union between Pic and Étang (Smepe) – its president Fabrice Fenoy in the lead -, its public service delegate Suez and a few local elected officials, regional and national.

The threat of going to the cash register to pay a 24 M&euro note; to the tax authorities is therefore no longer relevant and will be relayed in the chapter of bad memories for the group which manages the treatment and recovery of household waste for six intercommunalities*.

No price cap for Suez

The good news arrived directly from Bercy at the end of March. The Ministry of the Economy and Finance therefore ruled in favor of Smepe in the case of payment of the surcharge which represents the difference between the ceiling rate decreed by the finance law of 2023 (i.e. 145 €/MWh) and the effective tariff which exceeded it and still exceeds it (152 €/MWh in 2024) by a few euros.

According to the contract which binds it to Suez, the joint union between Pic and Étang had the obligation to repay it, to the nearest euro, any contribution resulting from a new tax on energy prices. Where we find the famous exorbitant bill of 24 M€…

Mobilization and alert of both parties

"The fight was tough because it was the entire economy of the contract with Suez that was impacted. We all acted at our level and in the same direction: the delegatee to Bercy and us to the prefecture", indicates Fabrice Fenoy.

A mobilization and alert to the public authorities, all the more legitimate since the spirit of the 2023 finance law is not to drain the coffers of communities. A small sentence in a long text which will probably have strongly weighed heavily on the balance of exemption…

Biowaste at the heart of priorities

"Suez directly received a letter stating that it would not be subject to this price cap either. The alert has been exceeded on all sides and the perspectives have been restored", informed, relieved, President Fenoy during the conference given to the press at the headquarters of Smepe, in Lunel-Viel, this Tuesday, April 9, to formalize “the good news”.

He took advantage of the moment, alongside Olivier Penin, 2nd vice-president of Smepe responsible for finance, to present, in recovered serenity, a future of the union always focused on the future. evolution of waste treatment, both in terms of costs and volume reduction.

Always training and information for the citizen

In the short term, the fifteen Smepe employees are working on four essential, even urgent, areas, with citizen information and training in their sights.
Over the current year and in 2025, the emphasis is and will be placed on various strategies, starting with that of bio-waste, the volume of which still represents a third of the contents of the taxpayer's trash.

Smepe has thus affirmed its desire to deploy action based essentially on local composting and the fight against food waste. As such, a processing platform to remove biowaste from the incineration circuit is being planned in the municipality of Mauguio and should be operational within two years.

The challenge of quantitative and qualitative sorting of packaging 

Another black point and challenge of the Joint Union between Pic and Étang: packaging. Their collection is now running out of steam; either because it is poorly understood, or because it is poorly or not applied.

Today, they fill a quarter of the trash taken to the incinerator. Smepe has set itself the mission of deploying actions to increase the quantities of sorted packaging and the very quality of this sorting (no, not everything goes in the yellow bin!).

In addition to the obligation, in 2025, to be able to sort in public spaces, the union wants to go even further and offer packaging sorting solutions also at events general public such as votive festivals, concerts, festivals…

Sociological studies and consultation with residents

Behaviors which will be all the more facilitated by the citizen mobilization systems that Smepe is building a little more every day: consultation with residents in order to take into account their expectations, sociological studies to better understand their attitudes and actions delivered by a network of change ambassadors (around ten employed across the entire group) to work in a concrete way and in conjunction with local associations.

And because the less waste we produce, the less we pay, the incentive billing model for waste management by Smepe will be implemented for communities members. This approach will be entirely built for them and with them in order, among other things, to take into account the disparities of territories and local contexts.

* Lunel Agglo, the agglomeration of Pays de l’Or, the communities of communes Terres de Camargue, Pays de Sommières, Rhôny Vistre Vidourle and Grand Pic Saint-Loup. I subscribe to read more