Waste collection dominates local elections in Dordogne

Waste management has become a major topic among voters and candidates in Dordogne ahead of municipal elections on March 15 and 22. 

It comes as a growing number of French towns are choosing to end door-to-door waste collection, instead making locals take their own rubbish to voluntary drop-off points. 

The system became widely implemented in Dordogne in 2023. 

Authorities have said the system is more cost-effective, environmentally-friendly and improves waste and recycling sorting. 

But for some locals, the system has resulted in streets strewn with rubbish bags, prompting protests, legal action and calls to return to the old door-to-door collection system.

The waste system is a “major problem” in Périgueux, the town’s mayor Emeric Lavitola told France Info. 

"We practically have open-air dumps in some neighborhoods.” 

In Périgueux, as in a growing number of towns across France, each local resident is issued with a magnetic card they can use to open communal rubbish bins. 

The card allows them to access the bins only a limited number of times each year, decided according to household size (rather than income, which some locals find unfair). 

A couple without children are allocated 26 visits per year, with any additional access charged at €5.96 per opening. 

Political issue 

Mayor Lavitola, of the Socialist party, asked that all rubbish bins be made free to access shortly after he took office, but he was not able to implement his plan as waste management is no longer run by the municipality but the agglomeration community (communauté d'agglomération). 

And as locals have tried to avoid paying extra, or found bins full or damaged, they have taken to dumping their rubbish. 

The town’s streets are covered with nearly 15 tonnes worth of illegally dumped rubbish per week, according to the town hall, a figure that has almost doubled since the introduction of the new system. 

The issue has become one no candidate in the municipal elections can afford to ignore. 

Former mayor Antoine Audi, candidate for Les Républicains and Renaissance, has promised to double the number of rubbish trucks belonging to the town hall and open a hotline where locals can report dumped rubbish. 

Horizons candidate Michael Cadet has pledged to double the number of drop-off points in the centre of town, and La France Insoumise candidate Vincent Belloteau is calling for a moratorium on waste collection by SMD3.

Tracking illegal waste dumpers 

Périgueux has launched a brigade of people tasked with rifling through dumped rubbish bags, looking for proof of who left them. 

In 2025, they opened 4,200 bags, found 300 addresses and issued 150 fines, according to the mayor, who spoke to France Info. 

But this is the work of six employees and costs between €400,000 and €500,000 per year.

Périgueux is far from the only commune that has had issues with the new waste management systems. 

The mayor of the nearby village of Saint-Géraud-de-Corps has put up fences and installed cameras around his communal bins in a bid to deter illegal dumpers, according to France 3. 

And locals in some areas of Dordogne started dumping their rubbish in collection points in the neighbouring Charente region to avoid paying extra costs. 

Other areas have been harnessing AI technology to detect fly tipping at communal rubbish bins. 

And one mayor resorted to rifling through rubbish himself to find out who had dumped it, before returning the rubbish bags to their owner, along with a €385 fine.

Is your area using communal waste collection points rather than door-to-door collections? Do they work well or have they led to more illegal rubbish dumping? Share your experience at feedback@connexionfrance.com