“It doesn’t matter which bin you use, because it all ends up in the same place anyway.” Despite decades of information campaigns and ever-increasing media coverage of the climate crisis, this myth persists with alarming frequency. But is it true? We went on a deep dive through France’s rubbish system to find out what recycling in France really means on a daily basis.

The Truth About French Recycling

In Charente-Maritime, a public service syndicate called Cyclad (Syndicat Mixte pour le Cycle des Déchets) has been working to reduce, collect, recycle and treat waste from nearly a quarter of a million residents of over 200 towns and villages for the last 30 years. For Gaëlle Merle, who has been in charge of its communication for 20 of those years, the daily challenge is to make people aware of how their actions have a direct impact on the country’s ecology, not to mention its economy.

“In France, we operate on a ‘sorted at the source’ system,” explains Gaëlle. “This means that from the moment you choose to put something in the ‘black bin’, then it hasn’t been sorted, and it won’t be recycled. If you put a piece of cardboard in that bin, then it will get burnt or buried like the rest. It won’t get sorted later on.”

Yellow Bin Rules: Simpler Than You Think

The ‘yellow bins’, for rubbish that can be recycled, have existed in many areas for over 20 years, and whereas the sorting system at home used to be confusing, it has recently been streamlined and simplified to make it easy for absolutely anyone to apply.

“The rules are now very simple,” says Gaëlle. “Anything that’s packaging goes in to be recycled.” Empty oil bottles? Yellow bin. Yoghurt pots and their lids? Yellow bin. But do they have to be rinsed? “No! Using water to send packaging to get recycled would defeat the purpose in terms of the carbon footprint!” says Gaëlle. Obviously, you shouldn’t put a half full carton of soup in there, but no need to have spotless packets, either.

The Real Cost of Getting It Wrong

The unsorted waste is incinerated, until the treatment centres’ capacity is met after which deliveries go off to a landfill. Without even going into the damage this creates to the environment, it also represents a huge financial cost. And even if burning waste could potentially become a source of energy through heating networks, landfill sites only have downsides.

“It’s a very complex subject,” explains Nouvelle-Aquitaine’s regional advisor in charge of waste, Jérôme Guillem. “We can plan and manage as much as we want, but our main goal is to avoid having waste in the first place. We must first reduce waste, then recycle as much as possible, and finally, find the least worst solution for what we call ‘ultimate waste’.”

In an effort to reduce plastic waste, regions across France are working towards ambitious targets. “The effort is towards zero plastic pollution, not zero plastic,” qualifies Jérôme. “We have to be honest, and realistic: there are plenty of sectors, like hospitals, which simply can’t reduce their plastic consumption to zero. We can make the most of some very innovative techniques to repurpose it, though! Plastic waste can become a polar fleece, a train carpet or even a car hood. We just don’t want to burn or bury it.”

Where Your Recycling Actually Goes

Thankfully, the vast majority of waste handled by recycling services comes from the déchetteries, or local tips, but anything else is managed by recycling units, which sort again through the waste already theoretically sorted at home. These plants are open to visits from the general public.

“Everyone should go at least once, and I insist that these visits stay open to the general public,” explains Gaëlle. “It helps to understand where it all goes. It also turns the notion of ‘it all goes to the same place anyway’ on its head.” Jérôme agrees: “In one single place that receives our waste, things are treated very differently. Everyone should visit to see it for themselves. And to witness first-hand the absurdity of our society.”

Should the sorting process work properly, we should have mainly yellow-bin waste coming out of our homes, reducing our ultimate waste to about 30 litres a week for an average family. “The problem isn’t where it goes with the lorry,” says Gaëlle. “It’s how it’s sorted at home.” For example, glass has been sorted separately in France for 48 years, yet the recycling centres still find up to 10% of glass in the black bins, every single week.

The Second Life of Your Waste

At the déchetteries, there are up to 30 different channels to sort specific waste. Paper and cardboard get mulched and repurposed, metal gets melted and recycled, and textile gets new life through networks such as Refashion, who can transform used clothes and linen into bobbins of industrial thread, furniture stuffing, and even paper.

That’s right, clothes don’t get redistributed to people in need. “People give themselves a good conscience by throwing clothes into the recycling bins,” explains Gaëlle, “but the truth is that redistribution centres like Emmaus or the Secours Catholique are overflowing with clothes already. The genuinely responsible attitude would simply be to stop buying so many clothes in the first place.”

Some déchetteries have gone one step further in their effort towards a circular economy by installing huge swapping areas for furniture and objects to find a new home. People can pick up anything that they think they can use for free, and deposit anything they are not using anymore for others. Some sites have also set up ‘fablabs’ where concepts can be tested to reuse waste on a larger scale. Boulangeries that want to dispose of their used yeast can now share it with breweries who use it in their beer. Supermarkets who have excess fruit and vegetable waste can see that it becomes jam instead of landfill.

“We are seeing an acceleration in research and development,” says Jérôme. “A lot of financial investment goes into finding innovative solutions. We are constantly surprised.” Innovative companies are even finding ways to recycle human urine into powerful fertiliser, installing urinals in schools, public spaces, and tourist attractions whilst saving huge amounts of flush water. “Human beings are very ingenious!” admires Jérôme.

The Financial Reality

Not only does it make no ecological sense to burn and bury materials that can find a new use, but it’s financially irresponsible too, with new taxes regularly being introduced. The recent TGAP (Taxe Générale sur les Activités Polluantes) makes it ten times more expensive to treat ultimate waste at the final stage, and taxes like the loi AGEC (Anti Gaspillage pour une Economie Circulaire) are doing everything in their power to reduce waste and encourage recycling.

So, is punishment the answer? In some territories, bin collections have been reduced to every two weeks and the impact of ultimately forcing people to be responsible with their waste reduction and recycling has been immediately obvious. Some towns have even gone one step further, imposing a collection fee: pay as you throw. Waste is weighed at collection, or simply counted by number of bags, and then a fee is applied accordingly. Similar schemes are being rolled out across France.

The road isn’t straightforward, though. Some regions have been in the eye of media storms as they implement payment systems, or redevance incitative (incentive tax). People have been up in arms pointing out that elderly and disabled residents may have additional waste yet no way to take it to the collection bins. Opposition campaigns have been created, national news reports have been made. And yet, ultimately, waste has reduced. “It’s capitalistic,” sighs Gaëlle, “but if you reduce your availability for treatment, the waste you do treat is much more expensive.”

The Brown Bin Revolution

Since 2024, the brown bin, reserved for organic waste, has become obligatory across France. This includes food scraps, garden waste, and other compostable materials. “Take away organic waste, properly sorted packaging… we could even reduce the black bin collections to once a month!” enthuses Gaëlle. “But maybe that revolution will take a while…”

How You Can Make a Difference

In the meantime, consciousness is being awakened, and the tendency is towards improvement, even without inventing new methods. The next step will mean a deeper behavioural change.

“We need to buy less,” explains Gaëlle. “Take containers to the market, bring your own bag (don’t buy a new reusable bag every time you go out!), and just generally reduce what you consume. If you reduce what you buy, you obviously throw less away, but also you reduce the hidden waste at the source: the water, the electricity, the materials used to make what you have bought.”

Your practical recycling checklist:

• All packaging goes in the yellow bin, no rinsing needed
• Glass goes in separate glass bins (it has done for 48 years!)
• Organic waste belongs in the brown bin or your own composting bin
• Take textiles to dedicated recycling points
• Visit your local déchetterie to see swapping areas and drop off specific waste
• Check your commune’s collection schedule
• Consider visiting a recycling plant to see the process first-hand

It’s a gigantic task. But if the situation is ever to improve, it’ll be thanks to a collective effort. It might sound like a cliché, but every individual does play a part in the process. And that starts with sorting waste out at the source!