French town warms families with dry leaves

Millions of dried leaves are collected and sorted every year by a city in France. They will heat 4,000 homes during the winter and create some seasonal jobs.

The 40,000 tons of leaves from Amiens have a certain purpose that is particularly important at this time. Not only are they an energy-saving alternative, but they are also eco-friendly.

For the past seven years, this city has been collecting dry leaves and composting them. They’ve been using it for pollution control for a long time. The ingenious idea is that they are also sent to a biodigester to produce electricity.

Residents of Amiens no longer see falling leaves in autumn as a nuisance. They learned to use them for energy and even generated income for the city.

Today, cities and organizations are looking for ways to deal with their organic waste, even if it means creating new job opportunities for people. One of the solutions is in Amiens, where plant waste is collected and recycled and seasonal jobs are provided.

There are around 40,000 trees in the city that have been able to provide enough carbon dioxide to heat homes all year round.

How did they do it?

The municipality of Amiens collects 500 tons of dry leaves per year and recycles them in two ways: composting and methanation through a natural biological process.

For decades, work to stop pollution caused by cigarette butts, bushes and other debris has been done at one of Idex Environment’s methanation plants in the suburbs near Amiens.

Free electricity from dry leaves?

Amiens is the oldest methanation plant in France and recycles around 14,000 tonnes of waste per year.

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The waste passes through a biodigester and at the end of that time it produces biogas, which injects 18,000 MWh into the city’s distribution network.

In the city, 4,000 families have already used this biogas in their homes, helping to reduce the amount they pay to the government. This tax cut helps them save €50 per family per year.

In addition, it employs about sixty people with seasonal contracts to collect all the fallen leaves from the trees.

If all cities were involved in these types of projects, we would achieve great savings and the economy would be more equitable.

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