Antoine Frérot at Futurapolis: "Combining economics with ecological transformation will result in a large amount of work."
November 30, 2021 at 05:01 am EST
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Decontaminate by assigning a price to pollution
Antoine Frérot's interview on "Large groups facing the challenge of change" began with the commitments reached at COP26. Veolia CEO confirmed that these conferences play a major role, whatever the headway made, because they help the international community move forward. Asked about the price of CO2, Antoine Frérot reminded everyone of the challenge: we need to make sure that those who pollute clean up by imposing "the polluter pays" principle. Assigning a price to carbon would make it possible to insource the cost of pollution: when polluting costs more than decontaminating, the polluter would be better off cleaning up.
The price of carbon has increased significantly, but many sectors are not yet subject to it. A high carbon price would make cleaning up solutions such as the use of recycled plastic more competitive. Regulations should also be introduced to speed up their deployment. For example, setting a minimum percentage of recycled material incorporated in the manufacture of new products would speed up recycling. But to encourage manufacturers to choose recycled materials, they need a guarantee of continuous supply, traceability and stabilised prices. We must therefore create a mix of regulations, incentives and a price for pollution.
Recycle batteries, smartphones, and solar panels
For electric vehicle batteries, Veolia needs to meet two challenges: the dismantling of hazardous waste and the complex extraction of rare and expensive metals. Today, the Group recycles all the batteries from which it extracts rare metals such as lithium and cobalt. It is linked up with Solvay and Renault to industrialise their recycling. In 2030 in Europe, it is estimated that one million batteries will have to be recycled each year. Recycling plants will be set up near the sites of car manufacturers to supply them with locally produced raw materials.
For smartphones, recycling electronic cards remains complex, but Veolia is making progress. However, a large number of solar panels are now at the end of their useful life: Veolia already operates the world's first plant for a complete recycling of photovoltaic panels in Rousset in Provence (France).
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Veolia Environnement SA published this content on 30 November 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 30 November 2021 10:00:04 UTC.
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