Waste Management in France

I live in a new development in Toulouse. When I say New, I mean as in still being constructed. Each apartment block has a locked room where rolling dumpsters are located. One for "waste" and the other for "recycling". They are rolled out of doors and emptied weekly. How the materials are disposed of after that is a mystery. In the courtyard of each cluster is a Food waste compost bin. A nice touch.

On a less than positive note, though the local government goes to great lengths to provide abundant waste disposal on virtually every block, the local inhabitants prefer to throw Cans, bottles, wrappers and other trash on the ground LITERALLY next to the waste bin. This appears to be some sort of Oppositional-Defiance disorder. The Mairie in Minime did a great clean up of one of the central plazas and people actually threw junk on the ground while the workers were cleaning, while they watched their work being disrespected. I thanked them in my terrible French for working hard to make the area liveable.  The locals also seem to enjoy the local wildlife by throwing old bread on the ground, right next to the rat-bait boxes. The rats are a lovely Tawny brown Norway Rats. They come out in broad daylight and cross the street. They are sleek, eat lots of baguette and ignore the bait boxes.

What can you do?  There a morons in every corner of the world!

It's some sort of cultural thing that I just don't get. They will literally go out of their way, in my town at least, and throw the trash on the ground, or on the window sill NEXT to the trash. I watched a team weed a small planting at the base of a tree. There was a bin maybe 8 meters away. As soon as they were done, a guy walked over and threw a food wrapper INTO the 2 square meter area they had just cleaned. He had to go out of his way to do it. There is something I am not understanding.

As to what can I do, I pick up stuff and throw it in the trash. Maybe I am the weirdo.

Electronics and appliances are left on the curb. Paper, food waste and glass, get put in the plentiful bins. Cups, cans and wrappers NOT. I don't get the distinction.

Rules about how to handle waste and recyclables can vary even within a commune so it is important to confirm what the rules are for your particular address. I live in a very small village and our non-recyclable trash is picked up once per week. Most food waste is to be composted. There is a collection point in the village for the following recyclables: glass, paper, metal and plastic, and batteries. Larger items such as furniture, construction waste, green waste, wood, large cardboard, metal, and large trash are to be taken to the decheterie. Our decheterie also has collection bins for cooking oil, motor oil, small and large electronics/appliances, some "hazardous" materials (containers of paint, cleaning products, pool chemicals, etc.), and light bulbs. There is also an annual curbside collection for larger items that can not be taken to the decheterie, which t needs to be scheduled in advance with the commune, usually in the early spring.

@Sepharad We sometimes experience the same thing in our village. One person put an entire pie into the metal recycling bin (because it came in a metal tin???) and others will leave large items in front of the recycling bins when they should be taken to the decheterie.