More and more nitrous oxide cartridges found in the streets of Nice: a scourge also for the environment

"We're finding cartridges everywhere on the Barelli hill, on the stairs leading up to the Saint-Pons chapel, near the hospital. What should we do with the canisters? Apparently, we're not allowed to throw them in the trash?" The question was asked at the general meeting of the Pasteur neighborhood committee on Friday, April 25.

And it extends far beyond this area of ​​Nice-Est. Port, Franck Pilatte, Vieux-Nice, etc.: nearly 6,000 cartridges were found in the streets of Nice in 2024.

"Repairs can cost millions of euros"

Initially used by doctors as an anesthetic or in cooking – notably for whipped cream siphons – nitrous oxide – "proto", also called "laughing gas" – is diverted for its euphoric effects.

A health scourge: "The use is not festive, it is dangerous in the short term. We have seen young people leave for intensive care with irreversible after-effects, particularly neurological ones," recalls Doctor Hervé Caël, municipal councilor delegated to Relations with health establishments.

But it's also a scourge for the environment. "These cartridges are real time bombs that cause the furnaces of incineration plants to explode," warns Pierre-Paul Léonelli, Christian Estrosi's deputy in charge of Cleanliness and Collection.

Result: a cartridge thrown into a household waste bin can cause major damage, even a fire. Five "breakages" occurred, fortunately without any injuries, at the Antibes Energy Recovery Unit in 2023 alone.

"Repairs can cost millions. We are currently building a high-performance factory at Ariane costing more than 220 million," said the elected official, who refused to put the equipment and his teams at risk: "We have safety protocols, we are not authorized to process these cartridges. Even if, in practice, we obviously collect them. We ask individuals not to put them in the usual bins or in the yellow bins but to take them to the recycling centers." He added: "Only the Nice-Ouest recycling center manages the process for disposing of these cartridges, but individuals can go to any site in the city."

"An exponential phenomenon" and a legal vacuum?

Like lithium batteries, the "proto" requires specific processes that cost the City of Nice "53,000 euros (an average of 9.07 euros excluding tax per unit)" last year.

And it's not over, worries Pierre-Paul Léonelli, "the phenomenon is exponential and the canisters are getting bigger and bigger, some reaching the size of a fire extinguisher."

He points to a legal loophole: "Despite the ban on sales to minors, these types of time bombs are still at the top of supermarket shelves. I am asking the legislature to take responsibility: either ban them completely, or require producers to collect and recycle them themselves."