Well actually it’s not. Our refuse service is excellent.
We have a Green bin for general waste & that is collected TWICE a week (yes I did say TWICE A WEEK!) not like in the UK where I understand bins in some areas are now only being emptied TWICE a month!
We have a Yellow bin for recyclable stuff (except glass) which is collected once a week. Again I can hear everyone in the UK saying ‘what no alternate week arrangement?’ Nope. The service is excellent.
There are a few things that tourists, part-time residents & newcomers don’t know about bins though. One is that they should not be left outside in the public view without permission from the Refuse people, which once approves means a sticker gets put on your bin saying Containeur Exterieur avec Permission. So please people put your bins out on the eve before collection day & immediately away after the bins have been emptied. (If you leave your bin out then someone will complain & the Refuse people (for us it’s SICTOM) will come round & politely warn you to put your bins away). This happened to my uncle, someone (not even French) complained but my uncle (category part-timer) didn’t know the bin rules.
Your bin (commonly referred to as Containeur rather than Poubelle here for some reason) should be taken to the appropriate bin collection point, ours are identifiable by yellow paint sprayed on the ground marking out ‘containeurs’ a recent initiative last year as too many people (tourists/part-timers/new-comers) were putting them randomly on the street presumably!
It’s something you should put in your diary really, bin out, bin in…because I always forget. Luckily, we have a friendly neighbour who brings our bin back up the street & pops it in my garage for me (bless!) so I don’t get in trouble (that was after I mentioned I got a gentle warning letter from SICTOM about our bin being left out when they came round to do their bin inspection).
Anyway my uncle’s dilemma was that if he went back to the UK but needed to put his bin out who would put it back? The neighbour was complaining as it was out for months between his visits, my uncle was worried about the smell if he left the rubbish in the bin in his garden. The solution, use the bins at the Mairie. Most Mairie’s have big bins behind them & if you are a part-timer then you can put your rubbish in there. Job done.
They take rubbish seriously here as you can see. Speaking of the Mairie, there is a very nice man from SICTOM who sits in the office at the Mairie once a month to chat with you about your rubbish questions. I’m not joking, If I want to know whether I can recycle a yoghurt pot or not…I go to the Mairie & see M. Sictom.
So what prompted this rubbish blog post? Well my neighbours opposite (who incidentally don’t put their bins away and are always getting visits from M. Sictom) had new ‘family’ sized bins delivered today. About time too (there are 4 children) and their bins were always spilling over the day after they’d been emptied. I now know how much rubbish a big family makes but I wonder how on earth do you manage back in the UK?
www.UK4Me.co.uk
UK Stores Delivering Overseas