Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Paris garbage


Not everything is glamorous in Paris... We also "produce" garbage and therefore, like in every city, we need to collect it, put it away and burn or recycle it. Like I already mentioned once, each Parisian produces almost 600 kg of garbage every month year, which is more that the double of the amount produced in 1940. We mostly reject cardboard and papers (magazines, etc.) then Plastic, then glass. For several years now (I've been unable to find when it started exactly) we have to sort our garbage (blue cans for glass, yellow ones for paper and plastic and green ones for the rest, like in this photo), but it's still a little complicated. Besides you need several cans and it's not easy in small Parisian apartments... If you're interested and read French, here is a full report.

26 comments:

  1. And there's that famous angle again! Such colorful poubelles, and I'm glad to hear that Paris recycles.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rules for recycling differ everywhere, even from suburb to suburb here. In Minneapolis, we (are supposed to) separate paper, newspaper, corrugated cardboard, glass (all colors together), metal, plastic. It seems difficult until you get used to it. Many suburb people think it's too hard, even if they don't have so many categories, and they just throw it all in the trash. I was glad to learn recycling is going on in Paris.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, you mean 'recycle' yeah we do it here, too.

    I'm impressed with how clean the sidewalk looks (well from here ;) is it raining already?

    ReplyDelete
  4. same here in my part of London.'Wheelie bin' with a green lid is for garden and food waste (and we have a 'kitchen caddy' to collect the food), blue lid for plastic, paper, glass, cans etc and a black lid for everything else. Luckily apart from the food one we can also use a clear bag for recycling and a black bag for everything else so I only have one bin in the front of the house.

    I have always found Paris streets to be so much cleaner than London which is full of overflowing bins, rubbish all over the street (possibly as the bins are always full!).

    Seem to remember a campaign for yellow bins in the streets for the plastic etc - not sure how popular that was

    ReplyDelete
  5. Seems the ciggies missed the trash can!

    ReplyDelete
  6. lol Suzy!

    I'm fortunate that where I live we just have a bin for recycling and one for trash. I'm down to one bag a week in the trash (family of five) and shooting for one every other week.

    The longer I read your blog, the more I like it. Always interesting! Don't know how you do it...but I'm glad you do!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Suzy...you beat me to the punch! Nice one. Eric, we tricycle, then bicycle; some unicycle; some no cycle; some crash cycles; some popsicle; hopefully, all will eventually recycle! ...BTW Go VELIB too! ;-) Cheers all.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I think you mean 600 kg per year, not per month.

    (see p.7 of the report you cited).

    ReplyDelete
  9. lol Cali!

    We stayed in an apt. that had those bins but they were tall and I couldn't read the French to figure out what went into each of them, so I just guessed.
    Just got back right now and can report...no rain. It was the most beautiful of days EVER on Sun and Mon.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your picture is timely. In a couple of weeks, San Francisco will enforce the same recycling laws. I live in a very small apartment in a 36-unit building. I don't know how this is going to work. I wish my French were more fluent so I could read the report.
    As always, Eric, you are topical.

    ReplyDelete
  11. In LA we recycle, too. Same bins. I'm not surprised that paper and plastic is the tops - there is so much useless packaging now. I buy stuff with less packaging just for that reason. Then add bulk mail. I've stopped most of mine, but the mailing lists keep producing more work for me!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm glad to hear people are recycling all around the world (or at least in the PDP world!). We recycle in Pasadena, too, but all the recycling goes in one bin. I wonder if we have a system here that sorts by weight, or something, making it unnecessary for us to do it ourselves? I have no idea. Might be interesting to find out.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Eric, Even your photos of garbage cans are artistic, worth a second look. Nice shot. San Francisco recycling is wonderful in that you can mix it all together, save the compost.... and I've heard that all our compost is going up to the Napa these days for the wine grapes.

    ReplyDelete
  14. 600 kg par mois! Mazette, records battus ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  15. I do try to recycle but I've asked for the separate bins and the council hasn't brought me them. Everyone else has them! Weird. The only worry I have is that I read an article, sorry don't remember where, which said that whilst we're all cluttering up our kitchens with recepticles for this and that and spending time separating it all, at the other end it's a mess! There was some report about it all being lumped together somewhere in a hellish heap. I do wish I could recall it, anyone else??

    ReplyDelete
  16. I do try to recycle but I've asked for the separate bins and the council hasn't brought me them. Everyone else has them! Weird. The only worry I have is that I read an article, sorry don't remember where, which said that whilst we're all cluttering up our kitchens with recepticles for this and that and spending time separating it all, at the other end it's a mess! There was some report about it all being lumped together somewhere in a hellish heap. I do wish I could recall it, anyone else??

    THIS COMMENT IS 100% RECYCLED

    ReplyDelete
  17. L O L !!!
    This may be a recycling laugh too, but I do love it !!!
    Thank u Drummond.
    Lynn's comments are worth reading twice anyway, aren't they ? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  18. After reading all your comments, I'm feeling lucky that on each floor of my building there's a little room with a chute for garbage, a bin for bottles and cans and one for paper. Then the porter sorts it all out. I'm always horrified when I go to visit my relatives in Virginia and they throw it all in one bag and don't even try to recycle. But they also have to take their own garbage to a dump, so maybe it all gets sorted there (I hope).

    ReplyDelete
  19. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for a collection company to just throw it all together after consumers have separated it. Jerks. It saves them time, but the purpose of recycling is defeated. We have a state legislator who owns a garbage/recycling collection business who got busted doing that and he just laughed it off and denied it. We need to keep trying, though.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonyme, How could I possibly disagree?

    Just hope that Lynn isn't consulting her copyright lawyers!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Tomate "I'm impressed with how clean the sidewalk looks (well from here ;) is it raining already?" No, but they had just cleaned the sidewalk when I took the shot.

    Anonymous - and everyone. Sorry I made a mistake it's 600 Kg per year and not per month!

    ReplyDelete
  22. LOL Drummond! Always a giggle...

    Thanks Anonymous, very much!

    ReplyDelete
  23. lol Drummond I try to stay away from lawyers since my divorce from one! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Eric,
    After spending almost a month in Paris this summer I learned one lesson. The French are much more dedicated to recycling. Now that i'm home, I have to admit I feel a bit of guilt if I don't follow your lead. I'm recycling much more than I ever have.
    V
    PS In our apt. it was a little embarrassing when I had to drop those wine bottles in the big green bin one at a time. The noise!!! Everyone knew how many we had! :))
    V

    ReplyDelete
  25. Colours Available:
    Iphone 3G S 32GB: WHITE and BLACK


    All these products comes with TWO years International warranty certificate.

    The Warranty works this way:
    With your Warranty Certificate, you can simply get a replacement incase of damage of the iphone within the two years of the warranty grace period. Bonanza: Buy two and get a free MUSIC IPOD 4GB.

    IPHONE 3G s 32GB:
    iphones comes with full acessories like:
    iPhone
    a battery
    a charger
    Stereo Headsets
    Dock
    Dock Connector to USB Cable
    USB Power Adapter
    Documentation
    Cleaning/polishing cloth

    We sell other mobile phones, PDA, Ipods, Laptops and HTC.

    Contact us for purchase:
    MSN: adbelectronics@hotmail.com
    YAHOO: adbelectronicsltd@yahoo.com
    Website: http://www.adebelectronicsltd.page.tl

    ReplyDelete