What's the Point...It's All Rubbish!

How does one deal with one's rubbish, when one lives in the middle of a forest, where large collection vehicles are understandably reluctant to tackle our forest road. Traditionally we have always taken it in bags down to a collection point close to the maison forestière. But now that we are encouraged to sort our rubbish more, the largest part of our refuse consists of plastic, tins, and of course , as connoisseurs of wine, bottles. These need to be deposited in one of the three central points in our village, some distance away. This, I confess, has become increasingly tiresome, as we periodically have to load our car up with large cumbersome rubbish containers, and spend quite some time posting items one by one into the required bank.

But help is at hand. All over Hérault, local authorities are issuing individual households with yellow lidded rubbish bins( bacs jaunes) in which they can deposit this recyclable rubbish. Soon, I am told, they will be distributed in our village, and that should make our recycling lives a little more straightforward. We will still have to deposit everything by the maison forestière, but it will certainly be so much easier to handle.

But there is more rubbish for collection in the forest than people may realise. Look what we saw yesterday, as we took our walk higher up the forest track. It was a surreal sight; worthy of Salvador Dali, as it sat in splendid isolation in the middle of this vast, wild landscape.

But who on earth would take a plastic chair high up into the forest, and then leave it behind? Clearly , a hunter abandoned it, who had been wanting to rest in comfort while guarding his post. But how thoughtless. The hunting season is long over, yet this chair remains here; an ugly and unwanted intrusion into our natural environment. Maybe , one day the metal legs will rust, corrode, and become buried. But as for the bright red plastic seat? If this chair is not disposed of, that garish red plastic will remain in the forest for ever. The best we can do, is to drive up to collect it and dispose of it at our local tip. Let's hope that when the hunting season reopens in August, the hunters will be happy to crouch on a tree stump instead.

Mea Culpa!

But it's not just one recalcitrant hunter who despoils our forest. Recently, while hanging out my washing, I noticed some small bits of brightly coloured plastic on the ground beside me. Stooping to see what they were , I realised that these were pieces of plastic clothes peg that must have broken off ages ago. Over the past few years, these robust pegs have grown brittle. When they snap in my hand, I throw them away. But slowly small broken pieces have been accumulating amongst the stones, and as I have now learned, they will never disappear. I have decided to jettison these pegs completely and replace them with wooden ones. Whilst these may not be quite as robust , they are cheap, and work perfectly well.

But what happens to our recycled rubbish? I watched a video about this process in Germany, which has been the world leader in recycling for a long time. Recycling plastic is a long and expensive process. Moreover, in Germany , only 38% of plastic waste can be recycled, such as that which bears the label PET, while one million tons of redundant plastic waste is exported to South East Asia each year. Most of this becomes landfill. No doubt this applies to France too. So what's to be done? Perhaps we can encourage more packaging manufacturers to use cardboard in place of plastic , and avoid plastic wrappings wherever possible. It's perfectly possible to buy loose goods such as fresh fruit and veg. and place them in brown paper bags after all. This will not only help the planet, but our recycled rubbish will become lighter and easier to handle. What's not to like? However, I am really glad that one of my favourite drinks comes in a green bottle. This is France after all! Even if it is quite heavy, at least glass can be easily recycled!