Waste bin audit

[Headers]

I have just seen a reminder advert on Facebook from one of the agglomerations in Lot and Garonne reminding people that there is an ongoing audit of the contents of their rubbish bins!
Blinkin heck!
Knowing how people react to things round here I can’t wait to see what happens.

[Hotrodder]

Get ready for fly tipping when this stuff hits people in the wallet.

[Blaze]

It's been on the news, no doubt to make sure people are recycling correctly.
No problem for us, but much more difficult for people living in towns, I imagine.
@Hotrodder Why could it hit people in the wallet ? It doesn't cost people more to use the correct bins !
Fly tipping as always been a problem in France, but that's because they can't be bothered to go to the dump, not for financial reasons.

[Headers]

It's been on the news, no doubt to make sure people are recycling correctly.
No problem for us, but much more difficult for people living in towns, I imagine.
@Hotrodder Why could it hit people in the wallet ? It doesn't cost people more to use the correct bins !
Fly tipping as always been a problem in France, but that's because they can't be bothered to go to the dump, not for financial reasons.

some areas have a limited number of trip to the bin controlled by a card. Want more then you pay.
Holiday makers with no card will undoubtedly just leave bags of rubbish by the bins - this has already happened in Dordogne.
It is difficult for older people who are not autonomous living in the plein campagne. Our maire hasn’t even started the new system yet and we don’t know where the triage point is going to be but I’ll guarantee it won’t be in carrying distance so things will have to be arranged for those with no transport.

By the way I am currently paying over 500 euros a year to be the dustbin man and I throw away less than 50 litres of rubbish a week.

[Lori]

Where we are the card/pay per opening of the trash bin system which was just started last April has ended. It met with such a huge outrage, the Maire said he would negotiate a different system. So he did. As of January 1, we went back to the communal recycle and trash bins that we had before. Only now, they open with a key and we were give 50 specific red trash sacs to use for the trash bin. You are not supposed to use any other trash sacs, but of course, we see other trash sacs in the bin.

Recycle also needs a key to open it.

I presume, towards the end of the year, if we have used all our red trash sacs, we will have to pay to get more (the paperwork that came with the new system did not specify this).

Still, this is far better than the card system where we were given 26 openings for the year for our nearly 300€ fee. Those openings are rather small. A full 50l sac will not easily fit in the opening, so you are left needing to open the bin more frequently to get your sac(s) in it or use more sacs/openings.

We now recycle every single thing that says it is recyclable (never looked so carefully before). This has substantially reduced the amount of trash we put in the bin. However, we still take a sac to the bin about every 10 days, so the card system would have forced us to buy more openings each year.

The current system is better (for us).

But, we have always noticed that some folks will put anything in the recycle bins and all kinds of crap beside the trash bins. These are communal bins so I presume there is no way to track who is doing this (short of their address/name being on whatever was left.

[Blaze]

some areas have a limited number of trip to the bin controlled by a card. Want more then you pay.

Ah, we don't have that in our part of Brittany and I've heard no suggestion of it being brought in.

But, we have always noticed that some folks will put anything in the recycle bins and all kinds of crap beside the trash bins. These are communal bins so I presume there is no way to track who is doing this (short of their address/name being on whatever was left.

You'd be surprised how many people leave clues !
Communal bins can be a problem particularly in rural areas. If they're not emptied regularly, people will leave bags, bottles etc on the ground which will then be pilfered by foxes and other hungry beasties. Then there will be people from other communes who dump building rubbish, old kitchen gadgets etc. We saw enough of it when we lived in Maine et Loire (49).

Lori - it's good that you had a Maire who listened to his constituents !

[MAD87]

The other problem is that there's no logic to what's recyclable or otherwise. Our older daughter lives in a commune adjoining ours, but their stuff is collected and has different recycling categories from ours. Why can't they all coordinate countrywide?

[Lori]

Then there will be people from other communes who dump building rubbish, old kitchen gadgets etc.

Yes, we've seen that here too. Particularly on the tiny roads few people drive on (easy to dump stuff unseen). So sad to spoil an otherwise gorgeous landscape.

Lori - it's good that you had a Maire who listened to his constituents !

Yes, I think he's been Mayor for 17 years. He does seem to care about his town and its inhabitants.

[Lori]

The other problem is that there's no logic to what's recyclable or otherwise.

I don't know if there is any truth to this, but one of our French neighbors insists that a lot of the recycled items that are collected are burned in huge incinerators.

[Quiksilver]

We're waiting for our visit, too, Headers The new scheme will be inaugurated next year. Luckily, we'll still have a fortnightly recycling bin collection, but the ordures ménagères (black bin) changes will be interesting, to say the least. We put a half-full 20l sack in our dinky little bin each week. Next year, after being 'encouraged' to create less household waste , the collection will take place once the bin is full of sacks. That's going to be delightful in the summer, both for us and for the binmen! The Agglo are being extremely coy about exactly how much we'll be charged for this bounty, but I'd bet quite heavily on it being more than is currently charged on the Taxe foncière. Still, mustn't grumble....at least it will still be collected.