In 2018, it is estimated that 520 000 tons of rubbish have been deposited in the wild, the equivalent to 52 Eiffel towers!! And this is on the increase!! It represents 21kg of rubbishes per inhabitant per year.
This is highly uncivilised when you consider all the Decheteries opened to welcome all the Rubbishes you don’t want!! But some people still find it too hard for them to transport their rubbishes there and prefer to damp them in our lovely countryside!!
This cost the community (and therefore us!) up to 420 Million per year to clean it up.
Face with this problem, a lot of people have organised themselves inside some associations volunteering to clean it up: Nettoyons la nature, Les Marcheurs Ceuilleurs, Green peace, World clean up day, etc. If you feel like you want to make a difference, you can contact them to join or even contact your Mairie as they organise special days to collect rubbishes. It involves free food and drinks usually!! And is quite fun and an opportunity to learn French and meet your neigbours!!
There is also a new app called “Clean2Together” on which you can inform your local authorities of damped rubbishes. You simply locate it on the app, describe it and take a picture and your local Commune is informed and come and clear it up.
If you see someone damping, please inform the police or your Mairie. The fine for damping is between 35 and 135 euro. Can be up to 75 000 euro and 2 years in jail if you are a professional (builder, gardener, etc).
The fine is in my view not high enough, and I am not the only one to think that. I recently seen a Maire using a famous social media to threat to name a shame some guilty people who damped some Rubbish on his commune. Not only the people came to clear it up the same day but the Mairie also confiscated their van!!
Note that you can find all sort of information on www.calitom.com which is the Charente site of the organisation in charge of collecting Rubbishes and managing the Decheteries.
