Responsible tourism is the new thing. Well we were being responsible tourists by not flying to France but that was only because we wouldn’t have been able to fit all our duvets and pillows in three cases. The campsite was very green, Keycamp is very green and, quite honestly, it didn’t half get on my wick after a while. I recycle at home, very keen to split paper, glass, even have a compost heap in the garden. But on holiday it was a pain in the proverbial.
The mobile home had a black bin outside on the decking but no bin at all inside. So there was nowhere to chuck stuff when you were in the bathroom (cotton wool, tissues) or busy in the kitchen (food waste, packaging). They provided a big yellow bag for paper and plastic so we used to hang that up on door handles. I could just about manage that but it grated. We used Rory as our recycling boy: his daily job was to take our clattering wine bottles up to the campsite dump.
Where he put them when he got there was anybody’s guess as it then became even more complicated. A notice in the caravan kitchen indicated where we were to put our waste:
Yellow Bag (Yellow)
Black Bag (Black)
Compost (Green)
Dechetterie (??) (Red)
Paper bag or Yellow Bag (Blue)
I have no idea how a yellow bag can be yellow or blue and don’t know what a dechetterie is but the list of possible rubbish they believed we would have in a static caravan was quite bizarre. Here are my favourites:
Envelope Paper (Yellow)
Fat Paper (Blue)
Telephone (Red)
Television (Red)
Coat Layer (Blue)
Car Battery (purple) …purple, where did purple come from?
Radiography (Red)
Bike (Red)
Branch (Green)
Lawn (Green)
Pile (Red) ????
Rest of meal (Black)
Wallpaper (Red)
Shoes (Red)
Refrigerator (Red)
By the end of the 10 days I was feeling very anarchic so the whole bloody lot went in the black bag: I cackled like a mad loon as I wilfully threw discarded leaflets for numerous tourist attractions into the black abyss. The yellow bags were then recycled into receptacles for our dirty washing: how’s that for being eco-conscious.
You mean you didn't recycle the wallpaper and the telephone?
Most bizarre.
I have my own recycling system at home – where we are too 'rural' to have any of it picked up by a big lorry thing. I have a corner of the kitchen bulging with all things paper, card, glass, plastic etc etc and when I can't stuff any more into it, Mr GPants throws it all in black sacks and puts it in the bins – which do get picked up by a big lorry thing.
Teamwork.
@Madame SG – Yup, couldn't find any wallpaper on the plastic walls to recycle, funny that!
You do make me laugh. They say it's the thought that counts!Is that the same for the ozone?
That's bizarre. I would have got pretty fed up with that too. They must take it seriously – not like us terrible nation.
That reminds me of years ago when I was on holiday with some friends in Provence. We didn't put our bin out on the correct day or left it in the wrong place and the next day we had a sunflower uprooted and put upside down on our bin. Apparently, so the locals told us, that's a sign that they are displeased with you. Oops!
@Deer Baby – un upside down sunflower!? That's crazy, yet somehow so chic haha!
Do people often recycle television, fat paper and rest of meals? đ
@Steve – Wish I knew what fat paper was, the phone book maybe?
This had me laughing out loud! I love your moment of rebellion as you left!
We have a complicated system too … but after a coupole years I've finally got used to it and it feels weird not to do it.
@christine – I think we'd done pretty well up until the end when there was enormous satisfaction in being devilish.
@Modern mother – I think that's the key, getting used to a system. I have no problem at home as I have developed methods and places to put bins etc. On holiday, trying to relax, it was very hard to be green in a tight space with no utility room!
Pile? I wonder if many holiday makers do a spot of wallpapering whilst out there.
Love how you sent your son to dispose of your wine bottles, if only Joseph were older….
Think I can help with pile – it's a battery – but fat paper has me stumped. Bahrain still follows the old-fashioned everything in the black bag method of disposal, so no such dilemmas here.
I was going to say that "pile" which sounds like it would go in the dog pooh bin in the UK [as in "urgh! Whose left this pile"], is actually a battery but Kate (above) beat me to it. When I was in France in 1999 (saw the eclipse!) I had to get a pile for my watch.
I'm wondering if "fat paper" is actually cardboard???
We were solemnly informed at our gite this year that we had to sort out and recycle all our own 'embolisms' and that the biiiin-men would refuse (no pun intended… too subtle for the Frenchman we were talking to) would inspect our bin for contraband!
Try making sense of that!
Mind you, we also read on a restaurant menu that a particular pudding was served with 'flogging' cream, so clearly the accuracy of the French-English dictionary left a lot to be desired.
@VB – young boys do have their uses!
@Kate and @Troy – Pile! Thank you. Fat paper could well be cardboard, I like that idea. I thought it might be butter wrappers!?
@Dotterel – Embolisms? Blimey. Love the flogging cream: let's flog some cream for the trifle, oui?
Don't you just hate it when you try to get involved & they make really complicated! Well odne for trying anyway!
I bet it all went into one big hole at the local dechetterie (which is the equivalent of the Council tip). A report about recycling in Le Monde a few years ago said that the French were averse to it as it was too complex to sort everything out. They only recycle about 16% of all waste, about 10% less than the UK and I bet most of it comes from Key Camps!
@jfb57 – Absolutely – a green bin and a black bin and I'd have been happy.
@Previously – do you know, we wondered whether that might be the case. It seemed very un-French to have so rigid a system. I felt very Gallic chucking it all in the same bin towards the end!