Recycling in France – How You Can Help Carp Lake Owners

One of the big differences you find when you move to Europe is the high level of recycling that you have to do without choice.  It’s very strictly controlled here in France, which of course in the long term is a good thing for us all.

Over the last year they have been rolling out stricter rules on what you can recycle and what you cannot.  They have also significantly increased the cost of the weekly refuse pickups  and now charge after an agreed amount of bin collections each year.

When it first came out here at Bletiere we thought it was another way for the government to make money but now having had the chance to look at it and started to recycle more, we realize just how much you can save.  This is good as we can recycle as much as we want and at no charge and they even supply free of charge special yellow bags for this.

On the 2^nd of January they rolled out the last part of the new system and have greatly added to what you can recycle.  To be honest there is not much you cannot send back now other than food waste and a few types of plastic – the hard part is getting into the habit of recycling.

The bins are randomly checked so we do have to stick to the rules.  It’s a warning first time we bin items on the list and then potential fines if we stray from the guide lines – and this is where we ask the help of our guests.

The last thing we want to do is interfere with the enjoyment of our guests fishing holidays but it’s not a nice job going through the bins at the end of the week, but we have done it in the past!

In the UK the councils are not so strict and a lot of people are not used to having to recycle – so everything goes in the dustbin. We have always supplied different bins here for recycling and will continue to do so and we will put signs up to show what must be recycled and we ask guests to read and please separate for us… if in any doubts please just ask.

This may seem to be yet another one of those EU Directives that seem to be churned out from Brussels but we believe that this is a good one and it will hopefully encourage more people to recycle, after all it all helps to save on the eye sores of landfills.

Tight lines, John and Lesley

Bletiere