Chris, problem is if you get caught and fined, if not worse. It apparently leeches into the soil and bedrock over time, can get into ground water and eventually public water supplies and is not easily processed out because it is mineral rather than bio. It's all in the booklet our contractor gave us when they took stuff away. As I said earlier, it is scary stuff.
I remember the tip up near Loudeac in early part of the century, it was an unmanned wasteland of smouldering batteries and burnt out cars, very Mad Max, hope it's changed since then!
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This might sound a bit stupid but if you have a fair sized piece of land and a bit that needs digging over, then I'd bury it...maybe not as deep as they might at a landfill in the UK... but if you bag it up in the recommended way...you know... double wrapped in chunky polythene and taped I'm sure that will do the trick... I would have thought Ploermel would be big enough (I know Loudeac isn't). I can't tell anyone about my Brittany escapade with asbestos...It's going in the book!
Cheers Nick, my OH is going to call a decheterie in a nearby town to see if we can get in with a different sticker. They seem to take the more dangerous stuff in this one.
Well I never knew that. Thanks for the explanation. For a moment I thought it was possibly a typo for "Eternity Roof", like a swimming pool but then I thought that didn't make sense as all roofs could be that!
Eternit is a (not) wonderful Austian invention corrugated sheet roofing, asbestos and cement with a life of around max 30 years and ours has been up for closer to 45. It is supposed to be 90% cement to 10% asbestos but tests a few years ago found it more like 20-30%. It has long since been replaced by fibre cement sheets after various cancers in the factories producing it went off any reasonable scale and builders using it a lot were not much better off. We have a booklet the people who removed ours left us with all of this detail in it and it is quite scary.
Good thinking also - no, but I will. We were advised by a friend that we would have to pay to get rid of it but that didn't float my boat so I posed the question here. Glad I did.
Cheers Brian, just out of interest what is a "Eternit roof"?
Have you asked at your local Mairie in case you can get a pass for a suitable tip that will take it?
It sounds like you can bag it up then, but then you need to find out where you can take it. We are between two decheteries and use both, neither of which take the stuff but believe you then have the possibility of taking it to the nearest large place that will take it. I have found the people at both places helpful when they could not take stuff and can advise where to take it. Give it a whirl.
Restoring a house, hmmm, sounds familiar, so many of us on SFN are doing the same and probably getting the same feeling.
I'm seconding Brian although I am not 100% sure for domestic. Certainly in our industry all asbestos can only be touched by authorised and qualified asbestos removal companies.
I can give you the name of a British guy who has his own asbestos removal company here in France and I'm sure he would be happy to spend 5 mins with you on the phone to give you the full sp.
Let me know if you want his number.
Regards
It's okay - I'm savvy on the H&S as I used to work for the environment agency and then maintenance companies. We're not removing anything, we just had some roof tiles hanging around and corrugated sheets from an old shed. I'm just surprised I would have to pay to get rid of it to be honest. I thought the council would have to accept it to avoid flytipping (not that I ever would) or atleast allow provisions for it. I am right in thinking that the car sticker for the dechetterie prohibits you from using another in a different area?
Thanks for your help though gents - been restoring a house now for only three months and at times it does feel like I have fallen off the edge of the map (Pre-magellan or 16c China :-) )
No you can't! We have an Eternit roof that we must replace and had loads of the stuff in barns and even pieces in the ground. When we had builders in to replace some of it they did not know. So we went to find out. Our local decheterie said no but gave us the address of a company who remove it. The warning there is that it costs. The roof we have to replace, although it is on part of the house, is deteriorating quite quickly so we believe it will have to go next year. The same contractor will have to be called in to take it down because most builders neither have the equipment nor protective clothing and their insurance companies would never cover a claim for something involving amiante at all. The firms who do it apparently pulverise it for it to be recycled into other insulating materials. The laws regarding the stuff are pretty tight, so it is all in controlled conditions and environments including us being advised that when we do have it stripped we should go away for a couple of days with cats and dogs.
However, our local decheterie is very small and I know that some large ones will take it. Nonetheless, if you are stripping/demolishing anything then you need all the protective clothing and so forth anyway.
That's the thing - I think ours in Ploërmel is too small and they have this sticker system to stop you going to others towns.
Not always easy to keep those larger sheets in one piece but i'll heed your words :-) It really is crap stuff.
Hi
Our local tip has a facility for the disposal of asbestos, it is quite a large one though, not sure the smaller ones would offer the same service. Be careful when you're handling it, it's the dust you want to avoid, don't cut or break it.
James
Hi all
I can see this thread is from some time ago now and after reading some of your comments I’m hoping some of you have changed your out look on how to deal with asbestos, I was see an alarming number of comments saying to just turn a blind eye or discard it somewhere or to someone. I’m taking from lack of knowledge some of you have will have got rid of your asbestos wrongfully and possibly exposed yourselves to its fibres and more importantly other people. So here is a quick message to enlighten many of you to how asbestos should be felt with in any country. Firstly get the asbestos surveyor out to determine what ACM it is, then have a management plan drawn up or removal contractor in to correctly remove and dispose of the asbestos once this has been done you will need an analyst to carry out a 4 stage clearance of the area (if it was a licensed product) if it was non-licensed then you could have a reassurance air test carried out to make sure no fibres are still prevent.
NOTE THIS IS A VERY BRIEF SUMMARY OF WHAT THE PROCESS TAKES.
Pagen Consultancy