264 terms used on this site and in the documents your contractors hand you: the law, the technique, the equipment, the costs and the reporting.
Internal capacity of the ABC composter vessel, identical on every model in the range. The figure says what the vessel holds at any one moment, not what it processes over a year: running continuously, one composter takes up to 1,500 kg of food waste a year. Above that volume you add a second composter rather than a larger model.
See also: stated capacity, usable volume, annual capacity, volumes / arisings
Sheet thickness used for the ABC composter vessel. At 2 mm, steel resists rats gnawing at it and does not deform under the weight of the material, where plastic cracks and wood degrades after a few seasons outdoors. The Easy to Compost ABC composter is made in France from this material, in a 450 L volume, and rents for 79 € excl. VAT a month.
See also: sealed, rodents / rodent-proof
Standard structural steel grade (EN 10025), common for folded and welded sheet. It is the grade used for the ABC composter vessel, in a 2 mm thickness. S235 describes the quality of the metal and 2 mm its thickness: the 2 mentions describe the same sheet.
See also: 2 mm steel, vessel
Group of filamentous bacteria that colonise the compost after the hot phase and sometimes form a white or greyish veil through the mass. They break down difficult molecules such as cellulose and lignin, which most other bacteria cannot attack. They are what gives mature compost its woodland-floor smell. Older literature also calls them actinomycetes.
See also: lignin, micro-organisms
Life cycle assessment is a method of environmental evaluation framed by the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards. It counts the impacts of a service across its whole cycle, from collection to return to the soil, and not only greenhouse gas emissions: it also covers eutrophication and acidification. One LCA is comparable with another only if the 2 studies use the same functional unit, for example the treatment of 1 tonne of food waste.
See also: carbon footprint, anaerobic digestion (industrial), local composting
Agence de la transition écologique, the French ecological transition agency: a public body that funds studies and equipment, and publishes the emission factors and the sector waste-production ratios that estimates are built on. It has no policing powers: it does not inspect companies and imposes no penalties. Confusing it with an enforcement authority is a common mistake in internal notes, and it distorts the way a file is prepared. Outside France the same reference figures come from the national environment agency of the country concerned.
See also: Food waste volumes, DREAL (French regional environment directorate), OFB (French biodiversity agency)
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Supply of oxygen to the mass of food waste, the basic condition for composting. Without oxygen, aerobic micro-organisms give way to anaerobic ones that produce sulphur and ammonia smells. Watch the double meaning: in a technical file, aeration can also refer to the ventilation of the room where the composter stands, which is a different subject.
See also: oxygen, forced aeration, odours
Forced aeration means driving air through the mass with a fan. The ABC composter does not work that way: air circulates on its own by stack effect, entering through the side vents and rising along the perforated chimney, and the mixing that keeps the mass open is turned by hand at the crank, with nothing to plug in. It is not an electromechanical composter.
See also: dry bulking material, sanitisation, ripe compost
Said of a biological breakdown that takes place in the presence of oxygen. It is the regime you want in composting: the temperature rises, odours stay limited and the end product is compost. Its opposite, anaerobic breakdown, is fermentation without air that gives off methane and foul-smelling compounds.
See also: aeration, bokashi, micro-organisms
A farmer close to the site who takes the compost produced and spreads it on their land. It is the usual downstream route for compost made on site, and the short distance between the point of production and the field is what makes that route a local one. Outside France, removal of the mature compost is arranged with the local operator of your choice, farmer or composting platform; we help you frame the specification.
See also: land spreading / spread, local recovery, NF U 44-051 (French soil improver standard)
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A financial penalty imposed by a policing authority without going before a judge, once a formal notice has expired without effect. For a breach of waste management obligations, the ceiling is set by Article L. 541-3 of the French Code de l'environnement. The penalty can be accompanied by a deposit of funds or by the works being carried out at the company expense. Outside France, the equivalent penalty and its ceiling are set by national law.
See also: Mise en demeure (formal notice), Article L. 541-3 (French Code de l'environnement), Police des déchets (French waste policing), Sanction pénale (criminal penalty)
Product added to the soil to improve its physical and biological properties: structure, water-holding capacity, organic matter content. Agronomically, compost is an organic soil improver and not a fertiliser: it feeds the soil before it feeds the plant. The distinction matters in a sustainability report, because the benefits you can claim are not the same.
See also: fertiliser, NF U 44-051 standard, return to the soil
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Nitrogen gas (NH3) with a sharp smell, released when the material runs short of oxygen or holds too much nitrogen for the carbon available. Its presence signals an imbalance: aerate, mix and add carbon-rich bulking agent. Ammonia is also a loss of nitrogen, and therefore a loss of agronomic value in the finished compost.
See also: nitrogen, carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N), odours
Said of a biological breakdown that takes place without oxygen. It produces methane, ammonia and sulphur compounds, which is to say most of the bad smells composting gets blamed for. Inside a composter, an anaerobic pocket signals material that is too wet, too compacted or not mixed enough. Anaerobic digestion and bokashi, by contrast, are anaerobic processes by design.
See also: aerobic composting, anaerobic digestion (industrial), bokashi
Woody fragments from the flax stem, a by-product of scutching. They act as a draining, absorbent material in the bed of the garden composter, alternating with topsoil. The bed is built once, at installation.
See also: layered planting bed, circular planter, garden composter
Open-air composting technique in which the material is laid out in long rows, turned periodically by a farm machine. It is the standard treatment method on farm platforms and at composting facilities. In an Easy to Compost setup the windrow belongs to the downstream stage: the material taken out of the composter finishes maturing on the receiving site, a farm or a composting platform chosen locally.
See also: composting platform, maturation
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Describes equipment whose design keeps rats and mice out: a closed metal vessel, openings fitted with seals, no direct access to the material. It is a first-rank criterion in catering and food retail, where pest control is a food-safety control point. The 2 spellings circulate on this site; in French, common usage writes anti-rongeurs in the plural.
See also: vessel, elastomer seals, top hatch
French implementing order that set the annual quantities above which a producer had to separate and recover its organic material, and that organised the progressive lowering of those thresholds from 2012. It lost all practical effect on 1 January 2024, when the obligation was extended to every producer and the thresholds lost their purpose. It is not a text of technical requirements for composting installations: that confusion leads people to quote the wrong reference in front of an inspector. Across the EU the staged thresholds of Article 22 of Directive 2008/98/EC came to an end in the same way, on 31 December 2023.
See also: Tonnage threshold, Gros producteur de biodéchets (large food waste producer), Loi Grenelle II (French environmental law)
Agence régionale de santé, the French regional health agency: a decentralised service responsible for health surveillance and for inspecting healthcare and social care establishments. In a hospital or a care home, it is the body that checks that a system for treating food waste introduces no risk: closed containers, no pests, clean and dirty circuits that do not cross. In practice its opinion decides whether the project goes ahead, before any waste regulation question arises. Elsewhere in Europe the same role falls to the national or regional health inspectorate.
See also: DASRI (French infectious healthcare waste), HACCP, sanitisation
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Provision of the French AGEC law that rewrote the separation-at-source obligation to extend it to every producer on 1 January 2024, removing any condition of quantity. It transposes Directive (EU) 2018/851, which required member states to make that extension by the end of 2023 at the latest. It is the reference to give when someone asks where the thresholds went; outside France, the equivalent provision is that country own transposition of the same directive.
See also: Loi AGEC (French circular economy law), Tonnage threshold, Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC
Provision that defines the compulsory content of the French regional waste prevention and management plan: baseline survey, forecasts, recovery targets and planning of the facilities needed. It is addressed to the Régions, not to companies, which draw no direct obligation from it. The documents that flow from it are nevertheless the reading grid used by the departments handling applications and by public buyers. Most EU countries have an equivalent regional or national waste plan.
See also: PRPGD (French regional waste plan), Loi NOTRe (French territorial reform law), SCoT, PLU(i) and PCAET (French local planning documents)
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French provision requiring every producer or holder of organic material to separate it from other waste and send it to recovery, since 1 January 2024. It applies without distinction to companies, public administrations, associations and local authorities, with no condition of size or volume. Only two routes satisfy the obligation: treatment where the material is produced, or separate collection entrusted to a third party. These are the same two routes that Article 22 of Directive 2008/98/EC opens in every member state.
See also: Separation at source, Biowaste (food waste), separate collection, On-site recovery
Foundation of the French administrative policing of waste: it allows the competent authority, after a formal notice that has gone unheeded, to require a deposit of funds, to have the works carried out at the operator expense, to suspend the activity or to impose an administrative fine. The procedure is written and adversarial, which leaves real time to put things right before any penalty. It is the text most often used in practice, well before any judicial route. Outside France, national law provides comparable administrative powers.
See also: Amende administrative (administrative fine), Mise en demeure (formal notice), Police des déchets (French waste policing)
Basis for criminal proceedings in France over the illegal handling of waste: abandonment, handover to an unauthorised person, non-compliant treatment. The penalty levels combine a fine and imprisonment, and were raised by Law no. 2024-364. Both the company and its legal representative can be prosecuted for the same facts. Outside France, comparable criminal offences exist in national waste law.
See also: Sanction pénale (criminal penalty), Responsabilité du dirigeant (director's liability), Procès-verbal de constatation (official report of findings)
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French provision that makes failure to sort, where sorting is required, a class-4 offence under Article 131-41 of the Code pénal. It is the lightest and the most directly applicable regime: no prior procedure, a simple finding is enough. Its modest level explains why it is little commented on, but it is the one a site visit triggers fastest.
See also: Contravention de 4e classe (minor criminal offence), Unannounced inspection, Amende administrative (administrative fine)
The Biowaste section of the regulatory part of the French Code de l'environnement, running from Article R. 543-225 to Article D. 543-227-1. It defines what counts as waste made up mainly of biowaste (more than 50 % of the mass, packaging excluded) and organises separation at source with a view to organic recovery. The regulatory part is amended by decree, and therefore far more often than the part voted by Parliament: check the version in force on Légifrance before quoting a number in a file intended for an inspection.
See also: Code de l'environnement (French environmental code), Décret n° 2016-288 du 10 mars 2016 (French decree)
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Level of external verification applied to sustainability information: the auditor concludes that nothing has come to their attention suggesting the data is wrong, without positively certifying its accuracy. It is less demanding than the audit applied to financial statements, which European regulation intends to move towards. In practice the auditor will ask for the audit trail behind your tonnages: weighing records, invoices, certificates from the receiving facility.
See also: CSRD, ESRS E5, traceability
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Document signed by the facility that actually receives the material, giving its identity, its address, the kind of treatment it carries out and the tonnages it accepts. It completes the collection records, which only show that the flow left, without saying where it ended up. It is the piece most often missing from the files produced during an inspection.
See also: Final destination (receiving facility), Local recovery record, Compliance file
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At Easy to Compost, the free assessment is a scoping meeting at no cost, held by video call, in which we estimate your volumes, the number of composters needed and how often the composter will need emptying. It is not an audit in the sense of verification by a third-party body, such as the ISO 14064 verification mentioned on the carbon footprint page, nor a regulatory sustainability audit. So the word covers 2 distinct realities on this site: a commercial meeting on one side, an external check on the other.
See also: volumes / arisings, collection frequency, ISO 14064
Nutrient element (N) supplied by wet, fresh material: peelings, food leftovers, coffee grounds, grass cuttings. It feeds the growth of the micro-organisms and triggers the rise in temperature. In excess relative to carbon it volatilises as ammonia and generates odours, which is why the carbon to nitrogen ratio matters.
See also: carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N), ammonia, carbon-rich / nitrogen-rich materials, browns and greens
Wheeled container of 120 L, the standard format for food waste collection, placed under the lower door of the composter to catch the mature compost. It is not a proprietary container: it is the same bin the ordinary collection services use, which avoids any specific equipment. The 240 L and 660 L sizes appear elsewhere on this site for configurations with larger volumes.
See also: removal, ripe compost, caddy
Standard container into which the material comes out of the composter when it is emptied. What comes out after a few weeks is pre-compost and not mature compost: maturing then continues at a farm or on a composting platform. It is the ordinary food waste collection bin, which avoids tying up a proprietary container. It sits under the lower door, on the bin stand.
See also: lower door, bin stand, collection guide
Two families of bacteria that take turns during composting. Mesophiles work at roughly 20 to 45 °C and start the process as soon as material goes in; thermophiles take over above 45 °C and break down the most resistant materials such as cellulose. It is the heat produced by the first that creates the conditions for the second to settle in.
See also: mesophilic phase, thermophilic phase, temperature (core of the mass)
Public database of emission factors run by ADEME and used as the common reference by greenhouse gas assessments carried out in France. It is versioned: stating which version a calculation used is part of methodological traceability. The Base Carbone should not be confused with the Bilan Carbone method, which is an accounting framework and not a set of coefficients. Outside France the equivalent national factor databases play the same role.
See also: emission factor, carbon footprint, kg CO2eq / kg CO₂e / kg CO2 per tonne
Accounting exercise that assesses the greenhouse gas emissions attached to an activity, here the management of food waste, by multiplying activity data by emission factors. Easy to Compost publishes the method behind its calculation and the reference scenario used, so you can check the assumptions before carrying a figure into a report. Take care not to confuse the carbon footprint of a waste stream with the full carbon footprint of an organisation.
See also: emission factor, Base Carbone (ADEME emission factor database), avoided CO₂ / avoided emissions, scope 3 / scopes 1-2-3
Non-hazardous waste of food or plant origin, able to decompose under the action of micro-organisms: meal leftovers, peelings, unwrapped out-of-date food, garden and park waste. The European definition sits in Article 3(4) of the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC, taken up in France at Article L. 541-1-1 of the Code de l'environnement, and it depends neither on the sector nor on the volume produced. Used cooking oil and packaging, even certified compostable, fall under separate regimes. In commercial English this material is usually called food waste.
See also: Separation at source, Waste codes 20 01 08 and 20 02 01, Used cooking oil
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Gas mixture produced by the anaerobic breakdown of organic material in an anaerobic digestion plant, made up of roughly 50 to 70 % methane and carbon dioxide. It is burnt to produce heat and electricity, or upgraded into biomethane injected into the gas grid. It is the energy product that separates anaerobic digestion from composting, which produces no usable energy.
See also: anaerobic digestion (industrial), digestate, methane
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Small collection container placed at the point of production (kitchen, servery, break room) where food waste goes before being taken to the composter. This site uses caddy, compost bin, tub and bucket interchangeably. Its size and how often it is emptied matter as much as the composter itself: a caddy emptied too late ferments and attracts small flies.
See also: small flies, sealed
French softwood (Pseudotsuga menziesii) used for the wood cladding of the garden composter. Naturally durable outdoors, it needs no chemical preservative treatment. The ABC composter on its own is chosen from five lacquered colours.
See also: timber cladding, finish, PEFC, larch
Japanese method of fermenting food waste in a sealed bucket with a microbial starter added. The process is anaerobic and acidic: it produces not compost but a fermented pre-compost that must then be buried or composted before it can be used. It suits small volumes and requires somewhere to bury the output downstream, which limits its use on office and service sites.
See also: EM (Effective Microorganisms), anaerobic / anaerobic fermentation, pre-compost / precompost
Regulatory waste tracking documents, distinct from anything a contractor delivers. The waste producer keeps a chronological register recording the nature, quantity and destination of what leaves the site; the transfer note is the document that travels with a stream while it is being transported. Neither is the same as the record handed over at each collection, even though both draw on the same weighing data.
See also: evidence (of traceability), traceability, final destination
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Document handed over at each collection visit: date and time, estimated volume, actual mass from on-board weighing, destination of the material, name of the driver and signature of the site contact. It feeds the register and serves as dated proof of collection. It is not a regulatory form in the sense of hazardous waste tracking, but it does the same job for a non-hazardous stream. Outside France it is the local operator you contract with who issues this document; ask for the same items on it.
See also: BSD (French hazardous waste tracking form), On-board weighing, Registre chronologique des déchets (French chronological waste register)
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The act of mixing the material to even out moisture, temperature and fresh inputs, and to reopen air channels. On a conventional open composter, mixing is done with a fork and calls for regular effort that often gets skipped. On the ABC composter it is done by an auger turned with a crank: the movement is mechanical and manual, with no motor and nothing to plug in.
See also: auger / mixing screw, crank, aeration
Wording used in one technical article on this site to describe the role of the central chimney. It can mislead about how the machine actually works: mixing on the ABC composter takes a human action, a few turns of the crank each week. No part mixes the material on its own.
See also: mixing, crank, aeration chimney
Industrial property title that protects a technical solution for a maximum of 20 years from filing. A patent attests to technical novelty; it is neither a certification nor a guarantee of performance. Note that a patent is territorial: it protects only in the countries where it has been filed and granted, which is why the term is used with care outside its country of filing.
See also: aeration chimney, aeration
Wood or woody green waste reduced to chips, used as a carbon input in a composter. It plays two roles at once: it soaks up excess moisture and creates air voids that keep the material aerated. On this site, the carbon input supplied with the composter is called dry bulking material, or bulking agent; its exact composition is not published.
See also: dry bulking material, bulking agent, moisture / moisture content
Bordereau de suivi de déchets, the French regulatory form that accompanies hazardous waste from its producer to the treatment facility, each party signing it in turn. For a non-hazardous organic stream it is not required: proof rests on the collection documents and on the certificate from the receiving facility. Demanding one from your contractor as a matter of principle adds nothing, but insisting on a dated and signed equivalent is essential. Most countries have their own equivalent form for hazardous waste.
See also: Collection docket, traceability, Registre chronologique des déchets (French chronological waste register)
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Quantity of food waste that a piece of equipment treats over 12 months, expressed in kg per year. It depends on the internal volume, on the density of the material and on the number of cycles completed in the year, and it is therefore far higher than the stated capacity. For an ABC composter it goes up to 1,500 kg a year.
See also: stated capacity, cycles per year, volumes / arisings
Indicators used to check that a compost is genuinely mature. Respiration rate measures in a laboratory the oxygen the material is still consuming: the lower it is, the more stable the compost. The cress test is the field version: cress is sown on a sample, and normal germination within a few days indicates the absence of phytotoxic compounds. Compost that has not stabilised can hold back plant growth if it is spread too early.
See also: maturation, mature compost, NF U 44-051 standard
The share of the carbon held in compost that stays stored in the soil after spreading, as stable organic matter, instead of returning to the atmosphere. It is an agronomic argument, distinct from the emissions avoided by cutting transport. Published values are average estimates: they vary with soil type, the dose applied and cultivation practices, and are presented as an order of magnitude.
See also: land spreading / spread, avoided CO₂ / avoided emissions, carbon footprint
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Editorial format used in the blog articles to illustrate sizing: a fictional but representative site profile, with its estimated volumes, the number of composters, the collection frequency and the matching annual cost. A worked example is not a customer reference and does not replace an estimate made on your own volumes. It gives you something to compare against before any costing.
See also: volumes / arisings, collection frequency, monthly rental
Summary PDF (dimensions, capacities, finishes, prices) offered for download in the articles of the resources section. To confirm dimensions or a loaded weight, the source to use is still the technical data sheet reachable from each product page.
See also: technical data sheet, collection guide
Main constituent of plant cell walls, made of long sugar chains. It is the dominant carbon material in cardboard, paper, straw and wood chips. Breaking it down calls for specialised micro-organisms and happens mostly during the hot phase of composting, which is why a piece of cardboard takes longer to disappear than a peeling.
See also: lignin, carbon-rich / nitrogen-rich materials, browns and greens
Filamentous micro-organisms that come into play mainly as the material cools and dries, and that attack resistant plant fibres. They tolerate drier and more acidic conditions than bacteria, which makes the two complementary. A white felting in the composter is usually a sign of mycelium, not a problem.
See also: micro-organisms, actinobacteria, lignin
Commercial expression meaning that the supplier takes care of the whole set-up: delivery and installation of the composter, commissioning, training of the teams, supply of the bulking agent, signage and maintenance. In the Easy to Compost rental, delivery, the bulking agent, maintenance, replacement parts, training and the awareness kit are included, and everything is handled remotely: the assessment, the training and the follow-up are done at a distance, and spare parts are shipped. Removal of the mature compost sits outside that scope and is arranged with the local operator of your choice. It is worth having the contract list exactly what the package covers.
See also: commissioning, maintenance, collection option
Small land-living crustaceans that live in the damp, dark material of the composter. They break up woody debris and leaves, increasing the surface available to bacteria and fungi. Their presence indicates that things are working, not an infestation.
See also: macro-organisms / macrofauna, earthworms
The gap between the emissions of a reference scenario, for example weekly collection followed by off-site treatment, and those of the scenario actually put in place. It is not a reduction in your own reported emissions: in sustainability reporting, avoided emissions are presented separately from scopes 1, 2 and 3, and never deducted from them. The value depends entirely on the reference scenario chosen, which therefore has to be stated.
See also: carbon footprint, scope 3 / scopes 1-2-3, weekly collection
The body of French rules applying to waste, to classified installations and to environmental policing. It reads on two levels: the L. articles, voted by Parliament, and the R. or D. articles, made by decree to spell out how they apply. An obligation set at the legislative level is therefore only operational once read together with its implementing articles. Every country has its own equivalent codification of waste law.
See also: Article L. 541-21-1 (French Code de l'environnement), Articles R. 543-225 et seq. (French Code de l'environnement)
Headings of the European waste nomenclature, reproduced in France in an annex to the Code de l'environnement, identifying respectively kitchen and canteen residues and biodegradable garden and park material. These identifiers must appear on the register and on the collection documents, otherwise an inspector cannot attach a tonnage to a specific stream. Using the wrong heading moves the material into another tracking regime and weakens the whole file.
See also: Registre chronologique des déchets (French chronological waste register), Biowaste (food waste), traceability
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Wording used in the blog articles for the collection option added to the composter rental, as opposed to a composter used on its own. In France that option costs 10 € excl. VAT per month per annual collection, for 1 to 12 collections a year, on top of the 79 € excl. VAT per month for the composter. Outside France the composter is supplied on its own, to buy or to rent, and the removal of the mature compost is contracted locally.
See also: low-frequency collection, collection visit, Mode A / Mode B, monthly rental
A collection arrangement in which the lorry calls 1 to 12 times a year instead of once or several times a week. It is only possible because pre-composting on site reduces and stabilises the material before removal: there is no liquor and no odour to take away every week. In France, Easy to Compost prices collection as an option at 10 € excl. VAT per month per annual visit, on top of the composter at 79 € excl. VAT per month; outside France, the same low rhythm is what you agree with your local operator.
See also: pre-composting, volumes / arisings
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The conventional arrangement in which a lorry calls once a week, roughly 52 rounds a year, whether the container is full or not. It is the reference scenario in the cost and carbon comparisons published on this site. It still makes sense for sites with very large daily volumes, where the material cannot be held on site.
See also: low-frequency collection, collection frequency, avoided CO₂ / avoided emissions
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Collecting food waste separately from residual household waste, so that it goes to organic recovery. Article 22 of the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC has required, since 31 December 2023, that biowaste be either collected separately or recycled at source. In France that obligation sits at Article L. 541-21-1 of the Code de l'environnement, from law 2020-105 known as the AGEC law, with no tonnage threshold: separate collection is one of the 2 ways of meeting it, the other being composting on site. The choice between the 2 depends on your volumes, the space available and the facilities around the site.
See also: on-site / in-situ / local / industrial / home composting, traceability, final destination
Company whose job is to empty the composter, weigh the material and take it to its final destination, where it is sanitised and finishes maturing before returning to the soil. Outside France you contract directly with the local operator of your choice; it is that operator who carries out the collection and supplies the data behind your records. We help you frame the specification.
See also: removal, final destination, weighing / weighed, collection round
Tiny arthropods a few millimetres long, very numerous in a healthy compost, recognisable by the way they jump when you uncover the material. They feed on fungi and decomposing matter and take part in breaking it up. Like mites and nematodes, they are part of the ordinary fauna of a composter and pose no risk to the teams.
See also: macro-organisms / macrofauna, nematodes / mites
Vertical perforated tube running through the ABC composter vessel. Air enters at the bottom, rises along the chimney and spreads through the mass, which prevents pockets starved of oxygen at the heart of the heap. 4 names circulate for this same part; aeration chimney is the most accurate, since the mixing of the material is done by the hand-turned auger and not by the chimney.
See also: forced aeration, stack effect, auger / mixing screw
Another name for the ABC composter, used mainly when it needs to be distinguished from the garden composter (the ABC composter on its own, standing on the ground, with no planter around it). It is the same product: a 450 L steel vessel, mixing turned by hand, nothing to connect.
See also: ABC composter, garden composter
Technical synonym for ripe compost, used mainly in standards and agronomy. A compost is said to be mature when its biological activity has stabilised, its carbon to nitrogen ratio has come down to around 10 to 20, and it no longer shows phytotoxicity. That is the state targeted by the NF U 44-051 standard for placing compost on the market as an organic soil improver.
See also: ripe compost, NF U 44-051 standard, maturation
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The end product of composting: a brown, even material that smells of woodland floor, in which the original waste can no longer be recognised. Getting there means going through the 4 phases of the cycle, so several months depending on conditions. Take care not to confuse it with pre-compost, which comes out of an on-site composter after a few weeks and still has to mature at a farm or on a composting platform.
See also: sanitisation, land spreading / spread, NF U 44-051 (French soil improver standard)
Two claims that are not equivalent: biodegradable only means that a material eventually breaks down, with no indication of how long or under what conditions, whereas compostable refers to precise standards. The OK Compost mark covers industrial composting, at temperatures and durations an on-site composter does not reach; only the home composting claim, or Home Compost, matches a composter on site. In practice, so-called compostable tableware and bags should be kept out of the composter unless they explicitly carry the home claim.
See also: on-site / in-situ / local / industrial / home composting
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Breakdown of organic material by micro-organisms in the presence of oxygen. It is the reference process in composting: it produces heat, carbon dioxide, water and a stable soil improver, without giving off methane or sulphur compounds. As long as oxygen circulates through the mass there is no unpleasant smell; odours signal a switch to anaerobic conditions.
See also: anaerobic / anaerobic fermentation, oxygen, aeration
Treating food waste as close as possible to where it is produced, as opposed to hauling it to a distant industrial facility. The benefit lies mainly in the reduction of transport and in the return to the soil within the same local area. It is an industry term, used by public agencies and by local authorities as well as by suppliers, and it is distinct from industrial composting on a platform.
See also: on-site / in-situ / local / industrial / home composting, local recovery, composting platform
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Descriptions of where and at what scale treatment happens, not of a different biological process. On-site and in-situ composting are synonyms and mean treatment within the producer own boundary; local composting also covers shared schemes at neighbourhood scale; industrial refers to platforms receiving several thousand tonnes a year. Home composting means household composting, whose temperatures and durations are not comparable with those of an industrial facility.
See also: composting platform, compostable / biodegradable
The professional composter made by Easy to Compost in France. ABC stands for Aération, Brassage, Collecte, the 3 functions of the machine: aeration, mixing and collection. A 2 mm steel vessel holding 450 L, mechanical mixing turned by hand, nothing to plug in, at 79 € excl. VAT per month. As a French cost benchmark, collection is offered there as an option at 10 € excl. VAT per month per annual visit, for 1 to 12 visits a year; outside France the composter is supplied on its own, to buy or to rent over 48 months, and removal of the mature compost is arranged locally.
See also: ABC composter, garden composter, aeration, mixing
Motorised machine that grinds, heats and mixes food waste, connected to the electricity supply and drawing power continuously. Many of these machines are in fact dehydrators: they reduce volume but do not produce stabilised compost. The ABC composter does not belong to this category: it has nothing to plug in and its mixing is turned by hand.
See also: dehydrator, tumbler composter
Composter mounted on an axle, which the user turns to mix the material. The mixing action is simple, but the material is turned as a block, the usable volume stays limited and turning becomes hard once the drum is full. It is one of the technologies the ABC composter is compared with on this site, since the ABC works through an aeration chimney and an internal auger rather than by rotating the vessel.
See also: mixing, electromechanical composter
Tool on the product page that lets you compare the available finishes and the planter option, shown at the same scale. It covers the aesthetic choice; dimensions, materials and installation requirements are in the technical data sheet.
See also: finish, timber cladding, technical data sheet
Internal volume of the vessel, in litres: 450 L for the ABC composter, 2,000 L for the circular planter of the garden composter. It should not be confused with annual capacity, which measures what the equipment treats over a year, up to 1,500 kg per composter, because the material is constantly renewed.
See also: 450 L / 450 litres, usable volume, annual capacity
Category of minor criminal offence in France, established by an official report with no prior procedure and no period to put things right. It covers failure to separate by someone required to do so, under Article R. 541-78. It can run alongside administrative follow-up brought in parallel by the policing authority.
See also: Article R. 541-78 (French Code de l'environnement), Amende administrative (administrative fine), Sanction pénale (criminal penalty)
Visit by an authorised officer with no prior warning, running in 4 stages: notification, physical examination of the premises and the bins, review of documents, then interview and signature of the report. The officer looks above all at whether what they see matches what your papers say: a residual waste bin loaded with organic material contradicts any certificate. Gathering the documents after the visit is too late, they are asked for on the spot.
See also: Compliance file, Inspecteur de l'environnement (environmental inspector), Procès-verbal de constatation (official report of findings)
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Time slot agreed in advance for the collection visit, set around the operating constraints of the site: before opening, in quiet hours or at night depending on the case. Fixing a slot avoids tying up a member of staff to wait for the lorry and limits disruption for teams and customers. It is a point to settle at commissioning.
See also: collection visit, removal, commissioning
European directive (EU) 2022/2464 requiring the companies in scope to publish standardised sustainability information, verified by a third party, in an identified section of the management report. Waste is treated there as a quantified outgoing flow, with tonnages by treatment route, and no longer as a qualitative description. Scope and timetable were revised at European level in 2025: check which deadline applies to you before building your data collection plan.
See also: ESRS E5, Sustainability statement, Double materiality, NFRD
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The closed body of the composter, in 2 mm steel. Its closure is what makes the equipment inaccessible to rodents and contains odours. It has 2 openings: a top one for putting food waste in, a lower one for emptying, both fitted with seals.
See also: 2 mm steel, top hatch, lower door, elastomer seals
Déchets d'activités de soins à risques infectieux, the French category for infectious healthcare waste: sharps, and material soiled with blood or biological fluids. They belong to a specific regulated route, with approved packaging, a tracking note and destruction or pre-treatment by disinfection. The issue in a healthcare setting is to stop a meal tray going into that expensive circuit, or the reverse. Every country has an equivalent category for infectious clinical waste.
See also: BSD (French hazardous waste tracking form), ARS (French regional health agency), Biowaste (food waste)
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Direction départementale de la protection des populations, the French departmental service that inspects food hygiene, product safety and animal welfare. In catering it looks at the cold chain, one-way workflow and the handling of food leftovers in production areas. Equipment installed without thought for where it stands and how it is cleaned shows up in its report before anything else. Elsewhere the same checks are carried out by the national food safety inspectorate.
See also: HACCP, ARS (French regional health agency), Sorting signage
The process by which micro-organisms and soil fauna turn organic matter into simple elements and humus. Its speed depends on four parameters: oxygen, moisture, carbon to nitrogen balance and temperature. Some inputs slow it down, such as large pieces of wood, bones or fats.
See also: breakdown, micro-organisms
French decree that organised stream-by-stream sorting of business waste and set out how it works in practice: separation at the point of production, a written contract with the contractor, retention of the evidence. It remains the operational reference for how to sort, while the obligation itself sits in the law. Its provisions have been amended several times since, in particular to bring organic material into the scope of stream-by-stream sorting. Other member states set out the same practical requirements in their own implementing texts.
See also: Tri 5 flux (French five-stream sorting), Articles R. 543-225 et seq. (French Code de l'environnement), Article L. 541-21-1 (French Code de l'environnement)
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Term used on this site as a near-synonym of decomposition, for the gradual transformation of the material inside the composter. Strictly speaking, breakdown refers to the splitting of complex molecules (cellulose, proteins, lipids), which is the first stage of decomposition. For a non-specialist reader the 2 words can be read as equivalent.
See also: decomposition
Extending the solution to several establishments in the same organisation, with a single contract, an identical sorting protocol and consolidated reporting. The main benefit is being able to compare sites on a consistent basis and having a single point of contact. Sizing stays specific to each site: the volumes of a head office and those of a staff restaurant do not call for the same configuration.
See also: sorting protocol, reporting, siting / installed base
Electrical machine that heats and grinds food waste for a few hours to drive off the water. The residue is dry and much reduced in volume, but it has not been composted: it is neither stabilised nor sanitised and still has to be treated downstream. The distinction has regulatory consequences, because dehydration on its own is not organic recovery.
See also: electromechanical composter, return to the soil
Direction générale de la prévention des risques, the central administration of the French environment ministry, which sets the doctrine applied by the regional services. Its circulars and instructions create no enforceable rights, but they show what officers will check and how they will read it. Reading them is the most direct way to know what a visit will look like before it happens. In other countries the same role falls to the ministry or the national environment agency.
See also: DREAL (French regional environment directorate), Inspecteur de l'environnement (environmental inspector), Unannounced inspection
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Liquid or pasty residue that comes out of an anaerobic digestion plant once the biogas has been produced. It holds the nutrients of the starting material, but in a rapidly available and volatile form: a significant share of its nitrogen can be lost in the weeks after spreading. It differs from compost, which is a stabilised solid with a slower effect on the soil.
See also: anaerobic digestion (industrial), biogas, soil improver
European text that sets the waste hierarchy: prevention first, then reuse, recycling, other recovery, and disposal as a last resort. Its revision by Directive (EU) 2018/851 required member states to generalise the separation of organic material by the end of 2023 at the latest. National waste law in each member state therefore only implements an obligation decided at Union level.
See also: Article 88 de la loi AGEC (French AGEC law), Organic recovery, Material recovery
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Déchets ménagers et assimilés, the French category for household and similar waste: everything the public service collects, including residents' bins but also business waste picked up on the same round. It is the unit of account for national and regional reduction targets, expressed in kilograms per inhabitant per year. A company served by the public service therefore weighs on that indicator, which explains why local authorities take an interest in its streams. Most countries use a comparable municipal waste indicator.
See also: OMR (French residual household waste), Redevance spéciale (French special waste charge), PRPGD (French regional waste plan)
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Document pack put together in advance to answer an inspection: service contract, dated proof of collection, certificates from the receiving facility, an up-to-date register, a plan showing where the containers stand, training materials and attendance sheets. Building it usually takes between 20 and 40 hours of internal work in the first year, then continuous updating. Its strength lies not in the volume of paper but in the tonnages being consistent from one document to the next.
See also: traceability, Unannounced inspection, Retention period for evidence
Principle of analysis that requires a subject to be looked at both ways round: the effect of the activity on the environment and society, and the effect of environmental issues on the company results. The first angle is called inside-out, the second outside-in. For food leftovers that means quantifying, on one side, the emissions avoided and, on the other, the expected rise in treatment costs and the risk of penalties.
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Déclaration de performance extra-financière, the French non-financial statement introduced in 2017 for large companies, published either as a separate document or as a section of the management report. It left wide latitude on content, which made publications hard to compare. It is giving way to the standardised sustainability statement: still citing it as an active framework in a tender signals documentation that has not been updated. Other member states had their own national formats under the same European directive.
See also: NFRD, Sustainability statement, CSRD
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Direction régionale de l'environnement, de l'aménagement et du logement: the French regional state service that inspects classified installations and enforces waste regulation in the region. In the Paris region the same role is carried by the DRIEAT. Its officers are commissioned and sworn, which allows them to draw up official reports sent to the public prosecutor. Elsewhere in Europe the equivalent is the regional or national environmental inspectorate.
See also: ICPE (French classified installations regime), Inspecteur de l'environnement (environmental inspector), DGPR (French risk prevention directorate)
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Small fly attracted to fruit and fermenting material, commonly called the vinegar fly. It often lays its eggs on peelings before they even reach the composter, which is why individuals appear in summer without any management failure. Its breeding cycle is very short, hence the need to empty the caddies regularly.
See also: small flies, caddy
The period during which waste management evidence has to stay accessible and available on request. Under French rules the register is kept for at least 3 years, while proof of collection and certificates are usefully kept for 5 years, in line with what auditors ask for and with limitation periods. Certified companies and those subject to sustainability reporting often go further, so that they can rebuild a multi-year series. Retention periods are set by national law, so check the one that applies to you.
See also: Registre chronologique des déchets (French chronological waste register), Compliance file, ISO 14001
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Term used by French environmental policing services for intentional or repeated breaches of the rules protecting the environment: fly-tipping, unauthorised discharges, sham treatment routes. It marks a shift to judicial rather than administrative handling. For a company, the tipping point comes when the gap stops being a documentary oversight and becomes a deliberate practice. Comparable offences exist in every national criminal code.
See also: OFB (French biodiversity agency), Sanction pénale (criminal penalty), Police des déchets (French waste policing)
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European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, the technical body that drafts the sustainability reporting standards for the European Commission. Its application guidance and its questions and answers set out how the indicators are calculated, including the circularity formulas. It is those documents, more than the directive itself, that the teams building their reporting actually consult.
See also: ESRS E5, CSRD, Circularity rate
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Loi EGalim, French law no. 2018-938 of 30 October 2018 on balanced agricultural trading relations and healthy, sustainable food. It requires public sector catering to include a share of sustainable and quality produce in its purchasing, to carry out a food waste diagnosis and, above a certain number of meals, to set up a donation scheme. Obligations on food leftovers follow from it indirectly: the diagnosis means weighing what is thrown away. Comparable food waste prevention duties for public catering exist in several member states.
See also: Food waste volumes, DMA (French household and similar waste), On-board weighing
Commercial mix of lactic acid bacteria, yeasts and phototrophic bacteria, used as a starter, notably in bokashi. It is sold as a liquid or as fermented wheat bran, and is used to seed the material and steer the fermentation. A properly run aerobic composter does not need it: the useful micro-organisms arrive with the waste and with the bulking agent.
See also: bokashi, micro-organisms
A European standard and private certifications attesting that a piece of packaging disintegrates under given conditions: the high temperature of an industrial facility for the first, the ambient conditions of a home device for the second. A certified container will not necessarily break down in a business composter, whose temperature and cycle length are different. In practice it is better to keep such packaging out of the organic stream than to put it in as a matter of principle.
See also: Biowaste (food waste), NF U 44-051 (French soil improver standard), Sorting signage
The physical event during which the operator empties the composter, weighs the material and takes the compost to its final destination. On this site, collection describes the service and removal the act itself. It is at that moment that the weighing is done and the traceability record is issued. Outside France that removal is carried out by the local operator you contract with.
See also: weighing / weighed, evidence (of traceability), collection visit, waste contractor / collection partner
Spreading compost on farmland or green spaces, where it acts as an organic soil improver, giving organic matter and nutrients back to the soil. Land spreading is regulated: the compost has to meet a soil improver standard such as NF U 44-051 in France, or be covered by a spreading plan. The rules and the applicable standard are set by the law of the country where the spreading takes place.
See also: partner farmer, NF U 44-051 (French soil improver standard), sequestered carbon / sequestration, local recovery
Common inputs to a composter, which fall into two complementary categories. Peelings, food leftovers, coffee grounds and grass cuttings are wet and rich in nitrogen; dead leaves, sawdust, wood shavings and unprinted brown cardboard are dry and rich in carbon. The balance between the two, in practice one volume of bulking agent to a few volumes of food waste, is what keeps odours away.
See also: carbon-rich / nitrogen-rich materials, browns and greens, dry bulking material, carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N)
Établissement recevant du public, the French category for buildings open to the public, classified by type of activity and by capacity. That classification drives fire safety and accessibility rules which constrain where a piece of equipment can stand: a yard, a plant room or a passageway. Checking this before choosing the location saves having to move the machine after the safety inspection. Every country has equivalent fire and accessibility rules for public buildings.
See also: Sorting signage, On-site recovery
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The European Single Electronic Format and its associated markup language, which require the report to be published as a structured file where every data point carries a standardised tag. Waste tonnages and the circularity rate thus become machine-readable and comparable from one company to the next. In practice an approximate figure can no longer hide inside a sentence: it is extracted automatically and set against the sector.
See also: CSRD, ESRS E5, Circularity rate
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Three families of criteria, environmental, social and governance, used to assess a company beyond its accounts. Sustainability rating agencies feed their databases with published data, waste tonnages and treatment routes included. A missing figure is often treated as zero performance by their models, which costs more than publishing a mediocre one.
See also: CSRD, Sustainability statement, Double materiality
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European reporting standard devoted to resource use and the circular economy, split into 6 requirements running from policy to quantified targets. Outgoing waste sits in sub-part E5-5, which asks for total tonnage, the share diverted from disposal and the breakdown by treatment route. Organic material therefore appears in tonnes and by route, which calls for real weighing rather than estimates.
See also: CSRD, EFRAG, Circularity rate, On-board weighing
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Where the material actually ends up once it has left the site: the facility or the field where it is genuinely recovered. For regulatory traceability, an identified final destination is documented by the name and address of the recovery unit, not by a generic wording. It is the first question to put to any collection contractor: where does the material really go.
See also: traceability, composting platform, partner farmer, waste contractor / collection partner
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The facility that actually receives the material and treats it: a composting platform, an anaerobic digestion unit, a farm plot receiving regulated spreading. Naming it, with its address and the kind of treatment, is what separates evidence from a simple collection docket. A contractor who refuses to give that information leaves a hole in the customer file.
See also: final-destination certificate, Organic recovery, Local recovery record
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Coefficient that converts activity data into greenhouse gas emissions, for example lorry kilometres into kg of CO2 equivalent. It is the building block of any carbon calculation: change the factor and the result changes, although the service has not. A credible costing therefore states which factors it uses, from which source and which version.
See also: Base Carbone (ADEME emission factor database), carbon footprint, kg CO2eq / kg CO₂e / kg CO2 per tonne
Strictly speaking, the transformation of organic matter by micro-organisms in the absence of oxygen, as in an anaerobic digester or a bokashi bucket. Composting being an aerobic process, the phrase aerobic fermentation is a loose use of the word. Inside a composter, saying that the material is fermenting therefore means it is short of air, which announces odours.
See also: anaerobic / anaerobic fermentation, aerobic composting, odours
Generic term for products that supply nutrients to crops, fertilisers among them. Compost belongs to that family in the broad sense, but it acts first as an organic soil improver: it releases its nutrients slowly and improves soil structure, where a fertiliser aims at a fast nutritional effect. Using the 2 words as synonyms is imprecise in a document written for farming professionals.
See also: soil improver, nutrients
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One-page PDF describing a model: dimensions, empty and loaded weight, materials, installation requirements. It is available from the product page without filling in a form. It is the document to send to facilities management or to the landlord to sign off a location.
See also: technical catalogue, stabilised ground / stabilised surface, siting point
The outward appearance chosen for the composter: a colour powder-coated in the workshop, or cladding in timber slats. The choice is aesthetic and affects neither capacity nor operation. Finishes can be compared in the configurator on the product page.
See also: configurator, timber cladding, coating / coated colours, RAL
Range naming used in some articles to sort composters by volume band. It does not match the models actually sold: the ABC composter has a 450 L vessel, the garden composter a 2,000 L circular planter. To size an installation, start from the volumes in kg per year and remember that one composter takes up to 1,500 kg a year, and that above 3,000 kg a year on-site composting is no longer the right answer.
See also: volumes / arisings, annual capacity, stated capacity
The number of collection visits over a year. In France, Easy to Compost sets it between 1 and 12 collections a year, deduced from the site volumes and from what the composter can absorb, up to 1,500 kg a year; each annual visit is billed at 10 € excl. VAT per month there, which makes frequency the main cost variable of that service. Outside France the rhythm is agreed with the local operator you contract with, and the same logic applies: the volumes and the capacity of the composter set the number of visits.
See also: collection visit, volumes / arisings, low-frequency collection, collection option
The quantity of food waste a site produces over a given period, expressed in kilograms per year. It is the input figure for any project: it sets the number of composters, the volume needed and how often the material is removed. An ABC composter takes up to 1,500 kg a year; volumes are estimated by weighing over a few representative days, or from a ratio per meal or per occupant.
See also: seasonality, low-frequency collection
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The quantity of organic material an establishment produces over a year, in kilograms or tonnes, estimated from ratios per meal, per occupant or per square metre, then corrected by real weighing. It is the input figure that determines the number of machines, how often they are emptied and the budget. Watch the double meaning: the same French word also describes the total arisings of a whole territory in planning documents, on an entirely different scale.
See also: On-board weighing, PRPGD (French regional waste plan), On-site recovery
Category from the French regime in force before 2024, covering establishments above a given annual tonnage, which were then the only ones required to sort. The notion disappeared when the obligation was extended to all producers, in line with Article 22 of Directive 2008/98/EC. Coming across it in an internal note or a commercial offer signals a regulatory basis that has not been updated.
See also: Tonnage threshold, Loi Grenelle II (French environmental law), Arrêté du 12 juillet 2011 (French implementing order)
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Document handed to whoever empties the composter: 9 illustrated steps and the list of equipment needed (square key, hand hoe, 120 L bin). It also serves as internal training material when the site team does the emptying itself.
See also: lower door, 120 L wheeled bin, bin stand
PDF specific to the garden composter, explaining how to build up the bed in alternating layers of flax shive and topsoil at installation. The way it is built determines the drainage of the planter and the flow of compost liquor into the soil.
See also: layered planting bed, flax shive, circular planter
A skin made of wooden slats screwed onto the vessel. The slats are replaced one by one if they are damaged, with no work on the vessel itself. It is the finish of the garden composter, in French Douglas fir; the ABC composter on its own is chosen from five lacquered colours.
See also: Douglas fir, finish, PEFC
Hazard analysis and critical control point method, drawn from the Codex Alimentarius and made compulsory for every establishment handling food by the European hygiene regulation. It rests on a written plan: hazard identification, control points, limits, monitoring, corrective actions and verification. A system for sorting food leftovers has to be built into it as a documented step, not bolted on beside the existing plan.
See also: DDPP (French departmental protection of populations directorate), ARS (French regional health agency), sanitisation
Said of a container closed to intrusion and to leaks of liquor. For a composter, being sealed against rodents and liquids is what you want, but it must never stop air circulating: a closed vessel still needs air inlets and a vent. For a caddy, on the other hand, a completely airtight lid traps moisture and speeds up fermentation, and therefore odours.
See also: aeration, caddy, rodents / rodent-proof
Frying and cooking residues that must not be poured down the drain or mixed with residual waste, because of the damage they cause to sewers and treatment works. They are stored in dedicated leak-proof containers and handed to a specialist collector, who sends them to biofuel or energy production. They do not compost and have no place in an on-site treatment machine.
See also: Biowaste (food waste), separate collection, Energy recovery
The share of water held in the mass while it is composting. Food waste holds 70 to 90 % water, which is too much for aerobic composting: without bulking agent the mass packs down, air stops circulating and liquor appears. The field check is the squeezed handful, which should be damp without a trickle of water running out.
See also: dry bulking material, leachate / leaching, aeration
The stabilised organic fraction of the soil, formed from the transformation of plant and animal debris. It is what compost becomes once incorporated: a slow-release store of nutrients that improves structure and water retention. Its formation is the end point of the composting cycle.
See also: soil improver, maturation
The killing of pathogens and unwanted seeds by holding a high temperature for long enough, of the order of 55 to 70 °C for several days in the thermophilic phase. The word is also used in a logistical sense, for the treatment of collected material in a workshop or on a platform before it returns to the soil. The two uses share the same health objective but not the same place or the same stage, so it is worth saying which one you mean.
See also: pathogens, thermophilic phase, temperature (core of the mass)
Installation classée pour la protection de l'environnement, the French regime for activities listed in a national nomenclature because they present risks or nuisances for neighbours, health or the environment, and subject, depending on their scale, to declaration, registration or prefectoral authorisation. Classification depends on an activity threshold, not on the nature of the equipment or its cost. A system that stays below the threshold of the applicable heading falls outside the regime and requires no prior formality. Comparable permitting regimes for waste treatment exist in every country.
See also: Rubrique ICPE 2780 (French classified installations heading), Rubrique ICPE 2781 (French classified installations heading), DREAL (French regional environment directorate)
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The word has 2 uses on this site. First, the act of settling where the composter will stand: lorry access, distance from the point of production, ground surface, drainage, constraints from neighbours. Second, the installed base, that is all the sites equipped, when the site speaks of our sites.
See also: commissioning, time slot, multi-site rollout
Ways of disposing of unsorted waste: incineration burns the material, landfill stores it in a disposal facility where its fermentation produces methane. These are the 2 routes that separation of food waste at source is meant to relieve, required across the EU since 31 December 2023 by Article 22 of Directive 2008/98/EC. They are also the comparison scenarios used in carbon costings, because they match the situation most sites were in before.
See also: anaerobic digestion (industrial), carbon footprint, separate collection
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Commissioned and sworn officer, attached in particular to the French regional state services or to the Office français de la biodiversité, empowered to enter business premises, to demand documents and to record offences. They work to a formalised checklist, which makes a visit predictable for anyone who has read it. Their findings lead either to an administrative report or to a procès-verbal sent to the public prosecutor. Every country has an equivalent corps of environmental enforcement officers.
See also: Unannounced inspection, DREAL (French regional environment directorate), OFB (French biodiversity agency), Procès-verbal de constatation (official report of findings)
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International environmental management standard, certified by an accredited body after an initial audit and then annual surveillance audits. Waste management appears in it as a significant environmental aspect: the auditor asks for evidence of regulatory compliance and for indicator monitoring. A gap on that point can lead to the certificate being suspended, with commercial consequences that often come faster than any public penalty.
See also: Compliance file, Retention period for evidence, Non-conformity
International standard on the quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions: part 2 covers reduction projects, part 3 verification by a third-party body. A reference to ISO 14064 only carries weight if it is backed by a dated verification report naming the verifier and the scope covered. Without that, it describes a method followed, not a certification obtained.
See also: carbon footprint, free assessment, LCA / life cycle assessment
The second model in the range: the ABC composter ringed by a planted circular planter. The same 450 L vessel, the same manual mixing and the same installation requirements as the ABC composter on its own. The planter turns it into a piece of landscape, useful in public space, at the foot of a building or in front of a company reception.
See also: circular planter, ABC composter, layered planting bed
Planted container that rings the composter in the garden composter model. It is filled once, at installation, in alternating layers of flax shive and topsoil. It plays no part in the composting but receives the compost liquor from the vessel.
See also: garden composter, layered planting bed, flax shive
Flexible seals fitted to the openings of the vessel to close them. They help contain odours and block the way to pests. Their condition is one of the points checked at maintenance visits.
See also: vessel, top hatch, lower door, rodent-proof
The body of decisions handed down by the French administrative courts, the administrative courts of appeal and the Conseil d'État, which set out how a text applies where its wording leaves room for interpretation. A first-instance decision binds only the parties: only a decision of the supreme court sets a line for all courts. Before relying on a judgment quoted in an article, check its level, its date and whether it is final. The same caution applies to the administrative case law of any other country.
See also: Code de l'environnement (French environmental code), Amende administrative (administrative fine), Sanction pénale (criminal penalty)
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Document given to the customer at each removal, dated and stating the mass weighed, certifying that the food waste has genuinely been passed to a recovery route. It is the evidence to keep in case of an inspection on the separation-at-source obligation. This site also calls it a certificate or an attestation: it is the same document, distinct from the waste register and the transfer note, which are regulatory records kept by the producer. Outside France it is issued by the local operator that carries out the removal.
See also: traceability, weighing / weighed, transfer note / waste register, removal
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Shorthand used in French commercial language for the evidence handed over after each removal, combining date, tonnage and destination. No text creates a document by that name: what counts is the content, not the heading printed at the top of the page. An inspector will look for an up-to-date register, dated proof of collection and a certificate from the receiving facility. The same three items are what an inspection asks for anywhere in the EU.
See also: Local recovery record, Collection docket, traceability
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Dated, weighed document issued at each collection, certifying the quantity of food waste that has left the site and where it went. It is the item to produce at an inspection or an audit to show that the separation-at-source obligation is met, an obligation carried across the EU by Article 22 of Directive 2008/98/EC and, in France, by Article L. 541-21-1 of the Code de l'environnement since 1 January 2024. Retention periods are set by national law; 5 years is the usual practice.
See also: consolidated reporting, final destination
Evidence stating the tonnage treated, the name and address of the receiving facility, the distance travelled from the site and the treatment applied. It answers the question actually asked at an inspection: not whether the waste left, but whether it was genuinely turned back into a resource. The distance also feeds the calculation of avoided emissions in a carbon assessment or a sustainability statement.
See also: Final destination (receiving facility), final-destination certificate, Organic recovery
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Unit of measurement for greenhouse gas emissions, bringing every gas back to its carbon dioxide equivalent according to its warming potential. The 3 spellings found on this site mean the same unit; what changes is the denominator, per kilometre travelled or per tonne treated, which always needs reading carefully. To compare 2 figures, check that they relate the same quantity to the same base.
See also: emission factor, carbon footprint, avoided CO₂ / avoided emissions
Set of materials supplied with the composter to explain sorting to the teams: 2 posters, a set of stickers for the caddies and digital visuals. The quality of the compost depends directly on what people put in, which is why signage at the drop-off point matters.
See also: caddy, contamination rate
Application of a baked coat of paint to the steel, which protects against corrosion and gives the composter its colour. The operation is carried out in the workshop, after cutting and welding. The word thermolaquage used elsewhere on this site refers to the same process.
See also: powder coating / powder-coated, finish, RAL
Rigid polymer of plant cell walls, present in wood, branches, brown papers and some fibres. It is the slowest molecule to break down in a composter, attacked mainly by fungi and actinobacteria. It plays a useful role: undegraded woody fragments hold air voids open through the mass.
See also: cellulose, fungi, bulking agent
Liquid loaded with organic matter that runs off when water passes through a mass of waste. Leachate, commonly called liquor, appears when the material is too wet or short of bulking agent. It has to be dealt with from the design of the composter standing area onwards, so that nothing runs into a surface water drain.
See also: moisture / moisture content, dry bulking material
Loi AGEC, French law no. 2020-105 of 10 February 2020 against waste and for the circular economy, built around 5 themes: phasing out single-use plastic, consumer information, fighting waste and supporting reuse, fighting planned obsolescence, and better production. Extending the separation of organic material to everyone is only one provision among many. Reducing it to a text about food waste is a common misreading. Its biowaste provisions transpose Article 22 of Directive 2008/98/EC, which applies in every member state.
See also: Article 88 de la loi AGEC (French AGEC law), Separation at source, Tonnage threshold
Loi Climat et Résilience, French law no. 2021-1104 of 22 August 2021, drawn from the work of the citizens climate convention, which strengthens sorting obligations for businesses and progressively widens the list of materials to be separated. It also increased the penalties for environmental offences. For a site manager, its practical effect shows up in the number of separate containers to plan for. Other member states have widened their own sorting lists on the same European timetable.
See also: Tri 5 flux (French five-stream sorting), Loi AGEC (French circular economy law), Sanction pénale (criminal penalty)
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Loi Grenelle II, French law no. 2010-788 of 12 July 2010, which created the first French obligation to separate and recover organic material, then limited to the establishments producing the largest volumes. It is the starting point of a movement of progressively lower thresholds, completed in 2024 when they were removed altogether. Citing it is a way of recalling that the current obligation is not a recent novelty but the outcome of 14 years of legislation. Most member states went through the same staged lowering.
See also: Gros producteur de biodéchets (large food waste producer), Tonnage threshold, Arrêté du 12 juillet 2011 (French implementing order)
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Loi NOTRe, French law no. 2015-991 of 7 August 2015 on the new territorial organisation of the Republic, which transferred waste planning powers to the Régions, previously shared with the départements. Each Région has since drawn up a single plan, built into its regional development scheme. For a multi-site company that means as many planning frameworks as regions where it operates. Comparable regional or national waste plans exist in every market.
See also: PRPGD (French regional waste plan), Article L. 541-13 (French Code de l'environnement)
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Composting process using specialised worms (Eisenia) that digest the waste and produce worm compost. It calls for a stable temperature of around 15 to 25 °C and material low in fat and acidity, and it does not heat up, so it does not sanitise the material. It suits limited volumes and a temperate room, which restricts its use on service sites with large volumes. The 3 terms mean the same thing; vermicomposting is the most generic form.
See also: earthworms, sanitisation
The amount billed each month for the use of the composter, used in the blog articles where the commercial pages speak of rental or subscription. At Easy to Compost it is 79 € excl. VAT per month for the composter, over a 48-month rental, and the same amount applies outside France. As a French cost benchmark, collection is an option there at 10 € excl. VAT per month per annual visit. The equipment stays the property of the supplier, which spares the customer tying up capital.
See also: Mode A / Mode B, collection option, maintenance
Loi de transition énergétique pour la croissance verte, French law no. 2015-992 of 17 August 2015, which set quantified national targets for waste reduction and material recovery. It also laid down the principle of extending the separation of organic material to every producer, taken up and made effective 5 years later. It is the text that set the direction for the French regional plans. Comparable national framework laws exist across the EU.
See also: PRPGD (French regional waste plan), Material recovery, Loi AGEC (French circular economy law)
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All the organisms visible to the naked eye that live in compost: worms, woodlice, insects, millipedes. They break the material up mechanically and prepare the work of bacteria and fungi. They appear mainly after cooling, once the mass comes back down to a temperature they can bear. Macrofauna and macro-organisms are two words for the same thing.
See also: micro-organisms, earthworms, woodlice
Upkeep of the equipment during the contract: checking the mixing mechanism, checking the condition of the vessel and the seals, resupplying the bulking agent, correcting drifts in moisture or in the carbon to nitrogen ratio. The ABC composter being mechanical and hand-operated, maintenance involves no electrical work. Everything is handled remotely: the diagnosis and the guidance are done at a distance and spare parts are shipped, with the customer or a local contractor fitting the part, which takes no special tooling. The frequency stated varies from one page of this site to another: it is a point to have set out in the contract.
See also: dry bulking material, collection visit, turnkey
The control that drives the mixing on the ABC composter. A few turns are enough to bury the fresh input and mix it into the material already breaking down, and that is the only routine operating action. It is also what separates the ABC from motorised machines: nothing has to be plugged in.
See also: mixing, auger / mixing screw
Method of filling the planter of the garden composter, in alternating layers of flax shive and topsoil. It is built once, at installation, and is described step by step in the filling guide.
See also: flax shive, circular planter, filling guide
Carbon-rich plant material added by the handful to food waste to absorb moisture, aerate the mass and balance the carbon to nitrogen ratio. Without it the composter packs down, turns anaerobic and gives off odours. Dry bulking material is the wording used by Easy to Compost on its commercial pages; bulking agent is the trade term, and the material is supplied and topped up as part of the offer.
See also: ratio (ADEME), maintenance, forced aeration
Two categories of input to be combined in the composter. Carbon-rich materials, called browns or dry, bring carbon and structure: cardboard, straw, dead leaves, sawdust, wood chip. Nitrogen-rich materials, called greens or wet, bring nitrogen and water: peelings, meal leftovers, coffee grounds, grass cuttings. The popular vocabulary and the technical vocabulary describe exactly the same materials.
See also: carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N), nitrogen, dry bulking material
The last phase of the cycle, after cooling, during which the material stabilises at ambient temperature and turns into humus. It lasts from several weeks to several months depending on conditions and cannot be sped up by mixing. It is what separates a pre-compost from a usable compost. Not to be confused with maturity, used elsewhere about a market or an industry.
See also: mature compost, cooling (phase 3), respiration rate / biological stability / cress test
A softwood that lasts outdoors, used like Douglas fir for wood cladding. It appears in an article on customisation; the species chosen for the garden composter is French Douglas fir.
See also: Douglas fir, timber cladding, PEFC
Greenhouse gas (CH4) with a warming potential around 28 times that of carbon dioxide over 100 years. It forms as soon as organic material breaks down without oxygen: in landfill, in a compacted bin, or deliberately in an anaerobic digester. Keeping composting aerobic prevents it forming, which is one of the carbon arguments for composting on site.
See also: anaerobic / anaerobic fermentation, anaerobic digestion (industrial)
Process of breaking down organic material in the absence of oxygen, carried out in a digester, producing biogas that can be turned into energy and a digestate spread on farmland. It is a recognised recovery route for food waste, an alternative to composting, which means hauling the material to an industrial unit. This site uses it as a point of comparison: the choice between the 2 depends on the volume produced, the distance to the unit and the nature of the material.
See also: local composting, LCA / life cycle assessment, incineration / landfill
Industrial facility where anaerobic digestion takes place: a sealed, heated and stirred digester, fed continuously with livestock effluents, cover crops and food waste. France alone has more than a thousand, mostly farm-based. The distance between the producing site and the nearest plant is a criterion to check before choosing between routes.
See also: anaerobic digestion (industrial), biogas
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Bacteria, fungi and actinobacteria that do most of the work of transforming food waste. They are already present on the waste and in the bulking agent: there is no need to add any. Their activity depends on four simple conditions: oxygen, moisture, carbon to nitrogen balance and temperature.
See also: mesophilic / thermophilic bacteria, fungi, macro-organisms / macrofauna
Reasoned order by which the French policing authority records a breach and sets a deadline, usually 1 to 3 months, to put it right. While that deadline runs, no administrative penalty can be imposed: it is a window to comply, not a fine. Once it has passed without effect, the authority can require a deposit of funds, have the works carried out or impose the penalty provided for by Article L. 541-3. Most national systems provide the same kind of formal notice before any penalty.
See also: Amende administrative (administrative fine), Police des déchets (French waste policing), Non-conformity
The start-up stage on site: putting the composter in the chosen place, priming it with bulking agent, handing over the caddies and the signage, then training the teams in the sorting action. At Easy to Compost the training is given by video call and the follow-up is handled remotely. It is the moment when the sorting protocol is settled, and the emptying rhythm with it.
See also: siting / installed base, sorting protocol, awareness raising / awareness kit
Internal naming used in the blog articles to distinguish 2 configurations: Mode A is the composter used on its own, Mode B the composter combined with a collection service. These labels appear on no commercial page and the price tables quoted alongside them differ from those published elsewhere on this site. The reference price is 79 € excl. VAT per month for the composter; in France, collection is an option at 10 € excl. VAT per month per annual visit.
See also: monthly rental, collection option, collection frequency
Common name for the small flies attracted to food waste, most often fruit flies. Their multiplication usually points to a caddy emptied too late, material that is too wet, or fresh input left on the surface without being buried. Burying the input and keeping bulking agent on the surface limits them.
Microscopic organisms present in large numbers in a healthy compost: nematodes are tiny worms, mites small arachnids. They feed on bacteria, fungi and debris, and help regulate microbial populations. They are part of the normal fauna of a composter and pose no hygiene problem for the teams.
See also: springtails, micro-organisms
French standard defining organic soil improvers and setting the composition and safety criteria a compost must meet to be placed on the market. A compost that complies can be handed over and spread without an individual spreading plan, which simplifies the relationship with the receiving farmer. It is compliance with a standard of this kind, and not visual maturity alone, that opens the agricultural route. Each country has its own compost quality standard, and it is the local one that applies.
See also: ripe compost, land spreading / spread, partner farmer
Non-Financial Reporting Directive, the 2014 European directive that created the first obligation for large listed companies to publish non-financial information. Its framework left wide latitude on format and content, which made publications hard to compare. It has been repealed and replaced by a more standardised regime, subject to external verification.
See also: CSRD, DPEF (French non-financial statement), Sustainability statement
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A gap between a requirement, regulatory or normative, and the actual situation on site. Auditors grade it: an isolated documentary gap is corrected by an update, a systemic one calls the organisation into question and triggers a monitored action plan. The seriousness lies less in the size of the finding than in whether it is repeated, or in the absence of any reaction after a first warning.
See also: Mise en demeure (formal notice), Unannounced inspection, ISO 14001
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French standard on organic soil improvers, setting the designations, the specifications and the marking of composts. It defines the limits to be met on maturity, trace metals, inert contaminants and pathogens. A compliant compost can be sold as an organic soil improver without an individual approval procedure. The official spelling has a space after NF: NF U 44-051. Outside France the equivalent national or European compost standard applies.
See also: mature compost, soil improver, land spreading / spread
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Category covering rodents, small flies and unwanted insects around a food waste drop-off point. Their presence has more to do with how the material is stored than with the waste itself: an open container, input left unburied or standing liquor are enough to attract them. It is the first subject facilities management raises when a composter is installed, and it is answered by the design of the equipment and by the operating routine.
See also: rodents / rodent-proof, small flies, odours
Nutrient elements held in compost, mainly nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, together with trace elements. In mature compost they are bound to the organic matter and are released gradually, over several months. That slow release cuts losses through leaching compared with a soluble mineral input.
See also: soil improver, fertiliser, humus
The malfunction signal most visible to the people on a site. A smell of ammonia or rotten egg means breakdown without oxygen, caused by excess moisture, compaction or a lack of mixing. The three corrective levers are always the same: aerate, mix, add bulking agent. Aerobic composting run properly smells of damp earth.
See also: ammonia, anaerobic / anaerobic fermentation, dry bulking material
Office français de la biodiversité, the French biodiversity agency created in 2020, whose officers hold the status of environmental inspector and act on environmental and waste policing. They can inspect a company, record an offence and send an official report to the public prosecutor, including outside the field of classified installations. Their involvement steers the case towards the judicial route rather than the administrative one. Elsewhere the equivalent is the national environmental enforcement agency.
See also: Inspecteur de l'environnement (environmental inspector), Écodélinquance (environmental offending), Sanction pénale (criminal penalty)
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Ordures ménagères résiduelles, the French term for residual household waste: what is left in the bin once every sorted stream has been taken out, headed for incineration or landfill. Its composition is the first thing looked at during an inspection, because visible organic material is enough to show that no separation is taking place. It is also the basis on which the public service bills the businesses it serves. Every country has an equivalent residual waste category.
See also: Redevance spéciale (French special waste charge), TGAP (French tax on polluting activities), Unannounced inspection
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Openings cut into the lower part of the vessel, through which fresh air enters. Together with the central chimney they form the air circuit: cold air is drawn in at the bottom, warms up in contact with the material and leaves at the top. No fan is involved.
See also: aeration, stack effect, aeration chimney
The first condition of composting: aerobic micro-organisms consume it to break the material down and produce heat. It runs out quickly in a mass that is compacted or waterlogged, hence the need for permanent air circulation and regular mixing. On the ABC composter, oxygen is distributed from a perforated chimney running through the vessel.
See also: aeration, aerobic composting, aeration chimney
A visit by the operator to the site to make a removal. In France it is the billing unit of the Easy to Compost service: each annual visit costs 10 € excl. VAT per month per composter, for 1 to 12 visits a year. It is also the carbon comparison unit, since every visit avoided means fewer kilometres, less fuel and lower emissions. Outside France the visits are agreed with the local operator you contract with.
See also: collection frequency, removal, time slot, collection round
Micro-organisms able to cause disease in humans, animals or plants, present in some organic waste. The temperature rise of the thermophilic phase destroys a large share of them, along with weed seeds. That is why diseased plants and some meat waste are kept out of a composter that does not get hot enough.
See also: sanitisation, thermophilic phase
International sustainable forest management certification, guaranteeing that timber comes from forests managed to an audited standard. The reference is useful in a responsible purchasing file or a tender response.
See also: Douglas fir, timber cladding, larch
Measurement of the mass of material at the moment of removal. It is the act that produces the figure behind the whole record: without weighing there is no verifiable tonnage, no usable record and no reportable indicator. Weighing is also used before the project, to estimate real rather than theoretical volumes over a few representative days.
See also: removal, evidence (of traceability), reporting, volumes / arisings
Weighing system fitted to the vehicle or its lifting arm, which records the actual mass removed at each stop and ties it to the site and the time stamp. It replaces estimating in litres, which allows neither tracking a trend nor feeding verifiable reporting. It is the data source that makes an annual tonnage defensible in front of an auditor.
See also: Collection docket, Food waste volumes, limited assurance
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The first phase of the composting cycle, starting as soon as material goes in and lasting a few days. Mesophilic bacteria consume the readily available sugars and proteins, which raises the temperature of the mass from ambient to around 45 °C. That rise prepares the next phase by creating the conditions for thermophilic bacteria to settle in.
See also: thermophilic phase, mesophilic / thermophilic bacteria
The second phase of the cycle, during which the temperature at the core of the mass passes 45 °C and can reach 65 °C. Thermophilic bacteria break down the resistant materials there and the heat provides sanitisation, meaning the destruction of pathogens and unwanted seeds. It is also the phase where the mass shrinks most, through evaporation and mineralisation.
See also: sanitisation, temperature (core of the mass), mesophilic / thermophilic bacteria
Professional facility that receives food waste and composts it in windrows or bays, with temperature and moisture control, before screening and selling the compost. It is an industrial destination, distinct from composting carried out on the producer own site. Watch the word platform, used on this site with 3 different meanings: the composting platform described here, the logistics platform that describes a type of customer site, and the software platform that means the monitoring tool.
See also: final destination, local composting, local recovery
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Plan local de prévention des déchets ménagers et assimilés, the French local waste prevention plan, compulsory for any authority holding collection powers, adopted for 6 years and reviewed annually. It sets reduction targets and the actions to reach them, local composting among them. A company is not its addressee, but finds in it the priorities of its local authority, useful when seeking support or a grant. Comparable local waste prevention plans exist in most markets.
See also: PRPGD (French regional waste plan), DMA (French household and similar waste)
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The place chosen to stand the composter on the site. It has to be reachable by the wheelie bin and by the collection vehicle, close to the points of production, on stable ground. No electrical or water connection is needed.
See also: stabilised ground / stabilised surface, technical data sheet
The power to inspect and to penalise, administratively, breaches of waste management rules. In France it belongs in principle to the mayor, or to the president of the inter-municipal body where the power has been transferred, and to the prefect for classified installations. Knowing who holds it over your site tells you who you will be dealing with in the event of a breach, and who to approach before a project. Elsewhere the same powers sit with the municipality or the regional environment authority.
See also: Amende administrative (administrative fine), Mise en demeure (formal notice), Article L. 541-3 (French Code de l'environnement)
Opening at the bottom of the vessel, through which the mature compost is collected into the 120 L bin. This site also calls it the collection door, the lower collection hatch or the bottom collection hatch: it is the same part. It has a seal that keeps it closed between 2 emptyings.
See also: lower collection hatch / bottom collection hatch, 120 L wheeled bin, bin stand
Material that comes out of pre-composting on site: reduced in mass, stabilised, free of odour, but not yet mature. It has to finish maturing elsewhere, in windrows at a farm or on a composting platform, before it is spread. The word takes a hyphen on most pages of this site; that is the spelling to keep. Speaking of mature pre-compost is a contradiction, since the prefix means precisely material that is not yet mature.
See also: pre-composting, ripe compost, maturation
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The breakdown phase carried out on the producing site, before any removal. It is what allows visits by the lorry to be spaced out: the material has lost part of its water and of its tendency to ferment, which limits odours and makes storage easier. It does not give finished compost: the pre-compost still has to mature at a farm or on a composting platform. That is what separates on-site composting from simply putting waste in a bin before transport.
See also: low-frequency collection, ripe compost
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A common but imprecise phrase: there is no state approval specific to the management of non-hazardous organic material. What can be checked is the waste transport registration held with the authorities, the existence of a written contract and the ability to name the destination facility. Asking for a generic number achieves nothing; asking for the certificate from the receiving facility and the transport registration does.
See also: Final destination (receiving facility), final-destination certificate, NF U 44-051 (French soil improver standard)
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Written act by which a sworn officer records facts observed on the spot, with date, place, people present and the operator own observations. In France it stands as proof unless the contrary is shown and goes to the public prosecutor, who alone decides what follows. The observations entered at the moment of signature remain the one simple opportunity to put your version of the facts on record. Most countries have an equivalent formal inspection record.
See also: Unannounced inspection, Inspecteur de l'environnement (environmental inspector), Sanction pénale (criminal penalty)
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The one whose activity generates the material, and the one who physically holds it, for example a restaurant operator in premises belonging to someone else, or a building manager. Both are bound by the obligation, and responsibility only ends once the stream has been handed to an authorised third party and genuinely treated. Signing a contract is therefore not enough to discharge it: you have to be able to prove the final destination.
See also: Article L. 541-21-1 (French Code de l'environnement), Final destination (receiving facility), Responsabilité du dirigeant (director's liability)
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The written rules that govern the daily action: what goes in the caddy and what does not, who empties it, how often, where the drop-off point is and what to do when something goes wrong. Written down, it gives the same standard of sorting across several establishments and serves as training material for new arrivals. It is the piece that makes a multi-site rollout comparable from one site to the next.
See also: caddy, signage, multi-site rollout, awareness raising / awareness kit
Plan régional de prévention et de gestion des déchets, the French regional waste prevention and management plan, adopted by each Région and built into its regional development scheme: it sets out the baseline, fixes recovery targets and plans the facilities needed. It creates no direct obligation for a company. It does serve as an assessment grid for the officers handling applications and for public buyers, who read the priorities of the area in it. The plan is a French planning instrument; each member state draws up waste management plans of its own under the Waste Framework Directive.
See also: Article L. 541-13 (French Code de l'environnement), Loi NOTRe (French territorial reform law), PLPDMA (French local waste prevention plan), SCoT, PLU(i) and PCAET (French local planning documents)
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German standard for colour references, for example RAL 7016 for anthracite grey. It allows a shade to be ordered without ambiguity, in particular when a site or a local authority imposes a colour scheme.
See also: coating / coated colours, finish, screen printing
Ratio of carbon to nitrogen in the mix to be composted. Food waste is rich in nitrogen and very wet: a carbon-rich material is added to aim at a ratio of the order of 25 to 35 to 1. The rule of thumb used on this site: 1 handful of dry bulking material to 1 caddy of food waste.
See also: dry bulking material, wood chip / shredded wood, micro-organisms
Proportion of carbon to nitrogen in the material to be composted, which governs how fast it breaks down and whether it smells. Going into the composter, the order of magnitude sought is between 25 and 35 parts of carbon to 1 of nitrogen, which means adding dry bulking material to food waste that is naturally rich in nitrogen. Take care not to confuse it with the C/N of finished compost, which comes down to around 10 to 20 and serves as a maturity indicator. This site uses several spellings (C/N ratio, carbon to nitrogen balance, carbon to nitrogen ratio) for the same idea.
See also: nitrogen, dry bulking material, mature compost
Identified section of the management report in which environmental, social and governance information now appears, with its quantified indicators and their verification by a third party. A stand-alone document published separately is no longer accepted for the companies in scope. That integration changes the nature of the exercise: the data comes under the same internal control regime as the financial figures.
See also: CSRD, DPEF (French non-financial statement), limited assurance, ESRS E5
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Average coefficient used to estimate volumes without weighing them, for example 15 g per person per office day, 75 g per meal in contract catering or 140 g per bed per day. These ratios give an order of magnitude for sizing, to be confirmed by real weighing. Not to be confused with the carbon to nitrogen ratio, often written C/N ratio, which describes the balance between dry bulking material and food waste inside the composter.
See also: volumes / arisings, annual volume / kg per year / tonnage, dry bulking material
Reference values published by the Agence de la transition écologique, the French ecological transition agency, to estimate the quantities of waste produced per meal served, per cover or per employee. They are French reference data, and they allow volumes to be costed without prior weighing, which is enough for a first sizing. Weighing carried out over 1 week is still more reliable than a ratio.
See also: volumes / arisings, annual capacity
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A French charge: the local authority bills businesses whose waste is picked up along with residents' waste for the service rendered, calculated on the volume presented and not on the rateable value of the premises. The amount can be increased when the bins hold a large share of organic material, often above 30 %. It is the quickest economic consequence of a failure to separate, well before any penalty. The same logic appears wherever a council charges commercial waste by volume, under the rules of the country concerned.
See also: TEOM (French household waste collection tax), OMR (French residual household waste), TGAP (French tax on polluting activities)
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Third phase of the cycle: once the readily degradable materials have been consumed, bacterial activity slows and the temperature comes back down towards ambient. Fungi and macrofauna then recolonise the mass and carry on breaking down the fibres. This phase comes before maturation and should not be cut short by a large input of fresh material.
See also: maturation, thermophilic phase, macro-organisms / macrofauna
Register kept by the producer, listing each outgoing load in date order: quantity, nomenclature code, date of removal, carrier, receiving facility and treatment method. Under French rules it is kept for at least 3 years and has to be produced straight away during a visit. A spreadsheet kept up to date is enough: what causes trouble is the missing line or the gap with the removal evidence, not the medium chosen. The register in this form is a French requirement; other countries set their own record-keeping rules on waste producers.
See also: traceability, Waste codes 20 01 08 and 20 02 01, Retention period for evidence
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Written record of the volumes treated, built from the weighings taken at each removal and backed by the matching evidence. It tracks how the volumes move, compares sites and builds the evidence file in case of an inspection. It differs from regulatory sustainability reporting, which is a corporate publication exercise that this data only feeds.
See also: weighing / weighed, evidence (of traceability), CSRD / ESRS E5 reporting, multi-site rollout
A single return bringing together the data of several sites: tonnages diverted, number of collections, compost produced. It saves rebuilding the figures site by site to feed a CSR report, a carbon footprint or a non-financial statement.
See also: traceability record, volumes / arisings
Publication of sustainability information required by the European CSRD directive, whose ESRS E5 standard covers resource use and the circular economy, and therefore waste streams and where they end up. Companies in scope have to present documented quantities there, broken down by treatment route, and not estimates. The weighings and records collected at each removal are a data source that can be used directly for that part of the report.
See also: reporting, traceability, scope 3 / scopes 1-2-3
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Stand on which the 120 L bin is placed under the lower door, so that it can be filled without having to hold it. An emptying accessory described in the collection guide.
See also: 120 L wheeled bin, lower door, collection guide
The possibility, under French law, of prosecuting the legal representative personally as well as the company, where the breach results from a decision or an omission attributable to them. A written delegation of powers, precise and matched with real means to act, can pass that burden to an operational manager. Without a formal delegation, the head of the business remains the first target of proceedings. Most European systems know a comparable rule, but its conditions are fixed by national law.
See also: Sanction pénale (criminal penalty), Article L. 541-46 (French Code de l'environnement), Waste producer or holder
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The purpose of organic recovery: putting the material from food waste back into an agricultural or horticultural soil as compost. That is what separates organic recovery from a simple reduction in volume, such as dehydration. Separation at source, required across the EU since 31 December 2023 by Article 22 of Directive 2008/98/EC and, in France, by Article L. 541-21-1 of the Code de l'environnement, aims at exactly that recovery, by composting or by anaerobic digestion.
See also: land spreading / spread, soil improver, dehydrator
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European Regulation 2016/679 on the protection of personal data, known in English as the GDPR, which applies as soon as a processing operation allows a person to be identified, directly or indirectly. A waste tracking system reaches it quickly: access badges for the bins, names of contacts on removal documents, geolocation of collection rounds. Those operations are documented in an internal record and limited to what the service actually needs.
See also: traceability, Collection docket
Rats and mice drawn to accessible food waste. A composter described as rodent-proof is a closed vessel whose walls, floor and openings resist gnawing: 2 mm steel sheet and close-fitting seals cannot be got through, unlike wood or plastic. It is the first point of attention on sites open to the public and in establishments subject to food safety inspection.
See also: pests, 2 mm steel, sealed
Number of complete composting cycles run in a year, usually 3 to 6 depending on the load and the season. It is that turnover which explains why a 450 L machine treats far more than 450 L of material over 12 months.
See also: annual capacity, stated capacity
Heading in the French classified installations nomenclature covering the aerobic treatment of organic material, that is, composting. The classification is read in tonnes of material treated per day, never in tonnes per year: the declaration regime starts at 2 t/day. A piece of business equipment treating a few tens of kilograms a day stays well below that and calls for no formality with the prefecture. Other countries set their own permitting thresholds for on-site treatment; the French figures do not transfer.
See also: ICPE (French classified installations regime), Rubrique ICPE 2781 (French classified installations heading), On-site recovery
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Heading in the French classified installations nomenclature covering anaerobic digestion, that is, breakdown without oxygen with production of biogas. It is separate from the heading covering aerobic treatment, and swapping the two numbers is a common mistake in commercial documents. As for composting, the classification is expressed in tonnes treated per day, under the French regime.
See also: Rubrique ICPE 2780 (French classified installations heading), ICPE (French classified installations regime), Organic recovery
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Variation in volumes and in biological activity through the year. Food waste volumes follow the activity of the site, with troughs over holiday periods and peaks in high season; in parallel, cold slows the breakdown and lengthens the cycle. The 2 effects have to be taken into account when sizing the installation and setting the collection plan.
See also: volumes / arisings, low-frequency collection, temperature (core of the mass)
The judicial route, in France, opened when the facts go beyond a simple administrative breach: abandoning waste, handing it to an unauthorised person, non-compliant treatment. The penalties combine a fine and a prison term, and reach the company as well as its directors. They require an official report sent to the public prosecutor, who alone decides whether to bring proceedings. The scale of the fines is set by French law and is no benchmark outside France.
See also: Article L. 541-46 (French Code de l'environnement), Responsabilité du dirigeant (director's liability), Amende administrative (administrative fine), Contravention de 4e classe (minor criminal offence)
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Breakdown of emissions from the GHG Protocol: scope 1 covers the direct emissions of the organisation, scope 2 those tied to the energy it buys, scope 3 the indirect emissions of its value chain. Waste generated in operations falls under category 5 of scope 3, as does the transport involved in collecting it. It is therefore in scope 3 that the effect of cutting the number of collection visits is read.
See also: carbon footprint, avoided CO₂ / avoided emissions, CSRD / ESRS E5 reporting
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Three French local planning documents: the schéma de cohérence territoriale sets the direction for a catchment area, the plan local d'urbanisme, sometimes drawn at inter-municipal level, governs land use plot by plot, and the plan climat air énergie territorial carries the emission reduction targets. The regional waste plan is enforceable against them, which brings its targets down as far as the building permit. Every country has its own planning hierarchy; for siting a piece of equipment it is always the local planning document that decides.
See also: PRPGD (French regional waste plan), PLPDMA (French local waste prevention plan), ERP (French building open to the public)
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The human side of the project: explaining to the teams why sorting is being introduced, what goes in the caddy and what stays out. The kit brings together the materials handed over at start-up: posters, stickers for the caddies and a sorting memo. At Easy to Compost the training that goes with it is given by video call, with no site visit.
See also: signage, sorting protocol, commissioning
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Printing a logo or an image directly onto the painted metal. It serves to bring the equipment into a brand's visual identity, in particular where it is visible to the public or to customers.
See also: RAL, finish, powder coating / powder-coated
Annual quantity below which a producer used to escape the obligation to separate its organic material. In France the successive steps, from 120 tonnes down to 5 tonnes, all disappeared on 1 January 2024: the volume produced no longer exempts anyone, whatever the size of the establishment. Article 22 of Directive 2008/98/EC has set no threshold either since 31 December 2023. A document still presenting one of those figures as applicable is out of date.
See also: Article 88 de la loi AGEC (French AGEC law), Gros producteur de biodéchets (large food waste producer), Arrêté du 12 juillet 2011 (French implementing order)
In France, the passing to the prefect of a finding of serious breach by the service that recorded it, with a view to a formal notice order or to heavier policing measures. It comes when the situation cannot be settled by a simple observation at the end of a visit. For the company it marks the move from a technical exchange to a written procedure with enforceable deadlines. The prefect is a French state authority; elsewhere the equivalent step is a referral to the competent national or regional regulator.
See also: Mise en demeure (formal notice), Police des déchets (French waste policing), Non-conformity
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Visual materials placed at the sorting point: posters, pictograms, stickers applied to the caddies and the containers. Set at eye level and in the right place, it cuts stream errors far better than a staff memo. It is a consumable to be renewed, in particular where teams change often.
See also: caddy, awareness raising / awareness kit, sorting protocol
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Marking applied on and above the containers to show without ambiguity what goes where: pictograms, a constant colour code, photographs of the materials accepted and refused, wording translated into the languages the teams speak. It is checked at every inspection, because it governs the quality of the sorting action. Identical display across all the sites of a group also cuts errors when staff move between them.
See also: Unannounced inspection, Compliance file, ERP (French building open to the public)
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Flat load-bearing surface on which to stand the composter: concrete, asphalt, a slab or compacted grass. No foundation, no special slab and no connection are needed. The point to check with facilities management is the loaded weight, given on the technical data sheet.
See also: siting point, technical data sheet
Material of animal origin not intended for human consumption, governed by Regulation (EC) No 1069/2009, which sorts it into 3 categories according to health risk. Catering waste from international transport falls into the strictest category and has to be destroyed, with neither composting nor anaerobic digestion possible. That rule explains the particular regime applying to airport and port sites.
See also: sanitisation, Biowaste (food waste), Organic recovery
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Coarse woody material added to food waste to hold air voids open through the mass and to soak up excess moisture. That is the physical role of wood chip, alongside its chemical role of bringing carbon. Bulking agent is the trade term for the same material in English, and it is the word used across this site; the French word structurant also serves as an ordinary adjective in a quite different sense, which can mislead in a terminology index.
See also: wood chip / shredded wood, dry bulking material, aeration
Name used in the FAQ for the top opening through which food waste is tipped into the vessel. It is the same part the product pages call the top hatch.
Share of non-compostable material found in the inputs: plastics, cutlery, capsules, packaging. It is the quality indicator for sorting and the first cause of rejection downstream. Above 5 %, a refresher session with the teams is triggered.
See also: caddy, awareness kit
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Sustainability reporting indicator measuring the share of material diverted from disposal against the total produced, expressed as a percentage. The formula adds the volumes recovered as material and those diverted from landfill or incineration, then divides them by the total volume generated. Because it rests on declared tonnages, it is only worth something if the weighings are real and documented.
See also: ESRS E5, EFRAG, On-board weighing, Material recovery
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Share of the volumes produced that actually goes to a recovery route, set against the total quantity of food waste generated on the site. It is a performance indicator to handle with care: its value depends entirely on how the denominator, that is the total volumes, is estimated. Without weighing the residual stream, a published rate stays an estimate.
See also: volumes / arisings, weighing / weighed, local recovery
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Temperature measured at the centre of the heap, the only point representative of biological activity: the outside is always colder, often by 15 to 25 °C. Tracking it checks how the phases of the cycle unfold, in particular the passage above 45 °C needed for sanitisation. A drop in temperature not explained by the end of the cycle signals a shortage of air, water or nitrogen.
See also: thermophilic phase, sanitisation, mesophilic phase
Taxe d'enlèvement des ordures ménagères, the French household waste collection tax, calculated on the rateable value of the premises occupied and not on the quantity actually produced. Cutting volumes therefore does not automatically bring the amount down, which explains the frequent disappointment after sorting is introduced. The gains are read elsewhere: on volume-based billing by the public service or on private removal contracts. It is a French tax; other countries fund household collection through their own local charges.
See also: Redevance spéciale (French special waste charge), TGAP (French tax on polluting activities), OMR (French residual household waste)
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Taxe générale sur les activités polluantes, the French tax on polluting activities, whose waste component falls on every tonne landfilled or incinerated, on a rising price path. It is owed by the operator of the facility, who passes it into the price paid by the customer, most often without showing it separately on the invoice. Biological treatment routes are not subject to it, which widens the cost gap with landfill year after year. Most European countries levy a comparable landfill or incineration tax, set at national level.
See also: Energy recovery, OMR (French residual household waste), Redevance spéciale (French special waste charge)
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Painting process in which powder is applied electrostatically then baked in an oven, giving a hard coat that resists UV. It is the process the site calls coating elsewhere. It is applied to the steel of the vessel, after cutting and welding.
See also: coating / coated colours, finish, RAL
Physical effect by which warm, less dense air rises and creates a slight depression that draws fresh air in at the bottom: the stack effect. In the ABC composter, the heat released by the breakdown keeps that air current running through the perforated chimney, which renews the oxygen with no fan and no electrical connection. It is the technical principle behind the permanent air circulation claimed for this equipment.
See also: forced aeration, aeration chimney, oxygen
Route the waste contractor follows to serve several sites in a single run of the vehicle. The density of the round sets the cost and the footprint of the service: the closer the points are grouped, the fewer kilometres each removal costs. It is also why a time slot offered depends on the other customers served in the same area.
See also: collection visit, time slot, waste contractor / collection partner
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The ability to document the journey of food waste from where it is produced to where it is recovered, with dates, quantities and an identified destination. It is what shows that the separation at source obligation is met, carried across the EU by Article 22 of Directive 2008/98/EC since 31 December 2023 and, in France, by Article L. 541-21-1 of the Code de l'environnement since 1 January 2024. In the United Kingdom the same requirement runs through Simpler Recycling in England, the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 and Workplace Recycling in Wales. What a failure costs is fixed by the law of the country concerned.
See also: evidence (of traceability), transfer note / waste register, final destination, separate collection
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Names used in the articles of the resources section for the lower emptying door. It is the same part, which the product pages call the lower door or the collection door.
See also: lower door, 120 L wheeled bin
Opening through which food waste is tipped in, at the top of the vessel. Its seal is what keeps pests out and holds odours in between 2 inputs. The FAQ calls it the feed drum.
See also: feed drum, vessel, elastomer seals
French obligation on non-household producers to separate several recoverable materials, originally paper and cardboard, metal, plastic, glass and wood. The list has grown since, with organic material added and then other fractions from construction. The name built on the number has stuck in everyday speech although the number of categories covered has risen. Article 11 of Directive 2008/98/EC carries comparable separate collection duties across the EU, each member state setting its own list.
See also: Décret n° 2016-288 du 10 mars 2016 (French decree), Loi Climat et Résilience (French climate law), Separation at source
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Separation of organic material by whoever produces it, at the time and place it is generated, before any mixing with other waste. Extraction carried out later, at a treatment centre, does not meet the obligation, even where the result looks comparable. Across the EU, Article 22 of Directive 2008/98/EC has required since 31 December 2023 that biowaste be either collected separately or recycled at source; in France the requirement has applied to every producer, companies, public administrations and local authorities included, since 1 January 2024.
See also: Article L. 541-21-1 (French Code de l'environnement), Biowaste (food waste), separate collection, On-site recovery
Incineration with recovery of heat or electricity, ranked above plain disposal but below recycling in the European waste hierarchy. Applied to material that is 70 to 80 % water, it spends energy evaporating that water before producing any. It is not one of the two routes Article 22 of Directive 2008/98/EC opens for biowaste, which is to be either collected separately or recycled at source, towards return to the soil or biogas.
See also: Organic recovery, TGAP (French tax on polluting activities), Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC
Return of the material to the soil within the local area where it was produced, rather than hauling it to a distant facility. In France, Easy to Compost states a reference distance of less than 50 km between the site and the plot where the compost is spread. Elsewhere you set that distance with the local operator you contract for the removal. It is also called organic recovery, as opposed to energy recovery, which turns the material into energy.
See also: land spreading / spread, partner farmer, local composting
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Using a waste as a resource to make a product or to improve a soil, as opposed to destroying it by incineration or storing it. It is the unit in which the targets of regional plans and reporting indicators are set, expressed as a share of the total tonnage produced. Return of compost to the soil falls within that scope, provided the actual use is documented.
See also: Organic recovery, Circularity rate, PRPGD (French regional waste plan)
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Biological treatment that brings the material back to the soil or draws biogas from it: composting, anaerobic digestion, regulated land spreading. Incineration, even with energy recovery, is excluded by the text, as is landfill. It counts as effective only if the end product is genuinely used: material sitting in a machine and never spread proves nothing.
See also: Energy recovery, Final destination (receiving facility), NF U 44-051 (French soil improver standard)
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Treating the material where it is produced, without any removal. It is one of the two routes Article 22 of Directive 2008/98/EC opens for biowaste, alongside separate collection. The ABC composter takes 1,500 kg a year: 450 L, 2 mm steel, made in France, mechanical mixing turned by hand, no electrical connection. Above 3,000 kg a year for a single establishment this route stops being the right answer, and regular removal becomes necessary.
See also: separate collection, Rubrique ICPE 2780 (French classified installations heading), Food waste volumes
An expression you sometimes read to describe the air circulation of a composter. It is misleading if it is taken to mean a fan: the ABC composter has no motor and does not plug in. Air moves through it by thermal draught.
See also: forced aeration, stack effect, aeration
Detritivores that break the material up, mix it and dig burrows that help air move through. They appear in a composter once the hot phase has passed, heat being against them. The species used in vermicomposting (Eisenia) are not garden earthworms but surface worms suited to rich material.
See also: vermicomposting / worm composting / worm compost, macro-organisms / macrofauna
Helical part inside the ABC composter which, driven by the crank, buries fresh inputs and mixes them into the material already breaking down. It handles the mixing, while the perforated chimney handles the aeration: two distinct functions carried by two distinct parts. The movement is mechanical and turned by hand, with no motor.
See also: mixing, crank, aeration chimney
3 ways of expressing the same measure: the quantity of food waste a site produces over a year. To avoid confusion it is better to keep a single unit, kilograms per year, and to convert to tonnes only for large volumes or for comparisons between treatment routes. A useful benchmark for sizing: an ABC composter takes up to 1,500 kg a year.
See also: volumes / arisings, ratio (ADEME), weighing / weighed
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Internal volume actually available for the material, expressed in litres, here 450 L. It differs from annual capacity, which takes account of the successive cycles run over the year and is expressed in kg per year.
See also: stated capacity, annual capacity, cycles per year
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