The European Litter Prevention Association

New French stars to lead the way to cleanliness

16 February 2016

The French are world-famous for their Michelin stars used to rate restaurants across the globe. This year, AVPU, the Association of French Cities for Urban Cleanliness, will be emulating that success by launching an eco-cleanliness label for cities in France. AVPU aims to recognise and encourage efforts to make lasting improvements to the cleanliness of public spaces. Lasting improvements are understood as prevention measures rather than clean-up measures.

The label is based on a five-star system whereby each star gives access to the next. In order to achieve a one-star level, a successful city or municipality will have used the AVPU measurement tool to sample their own cleanliness and will have communicated the results back to AVPU. A second star can be earned once issues identified in the first stage have been addressed. The third star is awarded to cities that take a broader sustainability approach by, for example, limiting CO2 emissions or encouraging seperate collection for recycling.

This new label builds upon the previous work done by AVPU members to measure cleanliness. In a joint effort, AVPU members have elaborated a method to measure cleanliness of public spaces in an objective way - the so-called "Objective Indicators of Cleanliness". This method varies in time based on the experience of its members.

For more information, please see the attached documents (in French) or contact AVPU or the Clean Europe Network Secretariat.