I am aware that areas of France vary in the transition of how rubbish is collected, or not, from households.
As far as our area is concerned we now have large bins supposedly strategically placed around the commune into which every individual has to travel to deposit household waste. For us our nearest bins are exactly 1 kilometre distant. The new regime has prompted us to compost at home all we can so now the only rubbish we take to the bins is for recycling or non recycling of which the latter is minuscule.
Now that the onus is on individuals to travel to their nearest bin we have a ‘dumpy bag’ (used builders merchants sand bag) in our barn into which all loose recycling material is deposited. For us it takes about 3 months to fill this bag and then I take it to the bin and empty the loose contents into the large bin.
Doing so today our Maire saw me arrive to empty the large bag and stopped me doing so advising that it would fill the container too quickly and no one else would be able to use it until it was emptied. As it happens the bin was actually almost empty! He said that rubbish should be brought in small bags once or twice a week and I should return home to re-bag my rubbish!
Luckily there also happened to be a man and van doing maintenance on the bins from the recycling company who witnessed the situation. He opened the back doors of his van, which was empty, and told me to empty the contents of my large bag into the van, loose, and he would take it to the recycling centre, which I did.
The Maire then disappeared and my new found friend proceeded to tell me that it was the Maire’s responsibility to monitor the amount of rubbish deposited and to arrange collection and therefore he was upset that my rubbish would fill the container too quickly!
The reason I have adopted my own method of collecting and disposing of recyclable rubbish is to travel 2 kilometres once every 3 months to the nearest bin but it seems I should actually make some 24 journeys over the same period totalling 48 kilometres. Now, you tell me, is that saving the planet? Not in my book.
When the new system was announced it seemed flawed and in my opinion it most certainly is. Rant over.
I must admit I feel very lucky that we still have individual bins for non recyclable that gets picked up weekly. Recyclable has always been in vast ‘banks’ at each entrance to the village but no one has ever made any fuss about them, they just get used and emptied. We’re on 200€ish for a 1 person household which is then increased 50€ per extra person this year so it’s not cheap, but the fact that I can dump the wheelie bin out of the front door weekly and don’t have to mess about counting collections to make sure I don’t exceed my allotted number and pay more, or have to take it to a communal bin and use a card to open it or such, plus vaguely easy access to the tip and 4 encombrants collections per year makes me think it’s worth the ridiculously expensive bill.
You are not alone… feel free to rant as far as I am concerned.
The Bins… is a hot topic in my area, too…
What has recently been foisted on our community is not at all what was discussed some 5 or more years ago.
The current gripe in my part of 47 is the communal recycling bins not being emptied often enough. I think they’ve gone to emptying them every two weeks to save money which has unfortunately coincided with everyone drinking way more soft drinks, beer and bottled water to cope with the heat.
We are also furious here over the bins the new system is totally rubbish!!!
Our recycling bins are not far from our gate so I dump that in when passing on the trike and check the post box at the same time.
For general rubbish our individual collections finished years ago and the nearest bins are 100 metres down a 10% hill. So it is the trike that comes into its own again with its very large rear panier. I also use a 100 litre wheelie bin in the kitchen as a former dog we had (Boss, see avatar 
) could open anything smaller. So that is more than a week’s gap between journeys.
Glass is further, about 1 km but, as a non alcoholic household it is only my jam and marmalade pots every so often. Provides a slightly different route for the trike. 
I think that’s going on here too.
I am not sure why my taxe foncier has multiplied 4 or 5 times in 10 years. I am still paying taxe d’habitation too because my partner always believed we should contribute even though in the early years this was not obligatory for second homes. So I haven’t been in a hurry to stop paying it even though I should probably have got round to it.
Rubbish collection is just like involving insurance in medical care. The moment you introduce a party that is solely motivated by profit, they will say anything to get you into their system then progressively deliver less for more. The only way to make it slightly better is to have strictly monitored performance measures and penalties and forced reimbursements for not providing the correct service. In other words your contract not theirs.
Since the new bin system has been introduced, there appears to be a lot of excessive bags, domestic and recycling, just dumped around the the collection areas!
This has certainly happened in our village…
If folk have make the effort (and often had to drive) to get to the bins… only to find the dratted things are full and/or won’t open… I can understand them leaving the sacks on the ground.
Incidentally, tonight’s stroll with one of the Mairie folk… I asked if the Mairie was responsible for telling the Rubbish Collectors when the bins are full.
We phone them non-stop… and they don’t come for days !! (was more or less the reply)…
Thanks Stella, so I I understood correctly 
Here in the east of Vendee we have a system that might make you jealous.
Each house / business has a wheelie bin, and the price that one pays depends upon the size of bin selected. The annual fee includes having the bin emptied 12 times a year, and also 12 visits to the local dechetterie, and a supply of yellow sacks for recyclables for which there is no numerical limit on collections.
We have door to door collections fortnightly for the wheelie bins, and alternate weeks are for the collection of the yellow sacks.
Glass and paper goes into communal bins of which there are two sets for our village of 1700 souls. We also have a communal bin for unwanted clothing, shoes, bedding, linens, and leather goods which are either recycled or re-used by a charitable society.
The yellow sacks are emblazoned with the message that all packaging is recyclable, so thin card, cans, and all types of plastic whether hard or pliable are accepted as long as items are reasonably clean.
Most folks have their wheelie bin emptied once a month or less, and each alternate week there are lots of yellow recycling sacks out on the streets.
Happily our dechetterie accepts a wide range of things for recycling, and also has a space set aside for unwanted but still functioning items which are then passed on to the Emmaus charity.
All in all there is very little that actually ends up in a landfill site, and most folks seem to be reasonably happy with the system.
I’m so cross I’ve started taking photos. Our closest bins are in the main entry to our lovely village and are a disgrace 
Seriously welcome on holidays to xxxxxx!
Well, here in our part of Aude, we have no extra charges at all for rubbish. There are large bins for general rubbish and recycling every 5 or 6 houses which are emptied frequently and a large enclosed area at one end of the village with glass and metal collection as well. The main dechetterie is 2km away and takes everything under the sun. There are no restrictions on anything. Reading the comments here, it seems we are very lucky.
Sounds exactly the same as we have in 56
16150 Charente - we are lucky it seems. Wheely bin for non recyclables emptied 2xmonth. Yellow bag for recycling collected from front of property 2xmonth.
Glass & all other recycling nearest town dechetterie. No real limit to our visits - but I do take some ice cream to our lady attendants when we have a heatwave (not to be seen as a bribe of course).
Bin and recycling collected from end of drive every week, containers in village for rubbish and recycling emptied once a week, glass bins & textiles bin etc emptied regularly but I don’t know exactly when. Encombrants 2x a year and you register for collection ahead. Also déchetterie available in Bergerac. No special extra charge.
Tory, that’s nooooothing. Clock this
To the right of these bins are two bins for bottles. And that’s it. The dechet is a 5 minute drive from this spot, so <10 mins from my house in Vire, Calvados.
The stuff dumped here is of every sort - furniture, bits of bicycle, TVs, masses of cardbard, as you see. How it gets to pile up like this I don’t know. Oddly enough, sometimes there is a load of stuff on the ground while some bins have plenty of space.
The round sticker on the bin warns of action against those who dump outside of a bin. Yeah - right.
It is inconceivable that the Mairie does not know about this mess. I do wonder if someone comes with a vehicle loaded with all those bags and slings them out wholesale and scarpers. There is a house directly opposite. They must see what goes on.
The lane my house is on is 1.75m wide. Access is straight onto the roadway - no room for bins.
I save up bottles and jars. When there’s 12-18 they go in the bottle bin. Everything else is in a bin bag and goes into one of the bins in the photo. Being a soltero, I generate very little waste.
Good for you, you are entitled to your rant.
We are lucky our communal bins rubbish and recycling are about 200m up the road and are normally emptied twice a week on a Tuesday and Friday, but not always. Glass goes to the village recycling bins and everything else to the local déchèterie, where the staff are Nickel (my favourite new French word) very helpful even helping empty our car and remorqué.
Regards Nick
Beginning to happen here too - SMD3 for us , for you as well i think ? They have not long put this new system in and already driving around i see the abandoned black sacks and the recycle bin stuffed full of bags when in fact the recycle bin should have things put in it loose.
I do this Peter, it is ridiculous and unsavoury and unhygienic to get all the rubbish out. We are a family of 4 so make a good amount so would also take ages. There is a lever at the side so that the bars can open to fit bags in. It is clearly not an issue as the other communes next door who have chosen the more attractive round bins are still using bags and it is all SMD3 or whatever they are called. All families do it from what I’ve seen! Only couples or singles I’ve ever seen actually do the one by one!