🟢 Green Bin
Ordures ménagères · green lid
The last resort.
Only what has no better home. Everything here is burned or buried — so check the other sheets first.
Note
Access card required for the collective bin. Nothing on this sheet can be recycled.
SMECTOM’s calendar and règlement call this bin the bac gris; the one at the chateau has a green lid. Collected at the kerb on Fridays of even weeks — put the bin out Thursday night, and only when it is full (each emptying is billed). See Waste & Recycling Collection.
What goes here
Tableware & kitchen
- Plastic plates
- Plastic cups
- Plastic cutlery (utensils)
- Wooden cutlery
- Porcelain plates (or déchèterie)
- Broken drinking glasses & champagne flutes
- Kitchen roll (paper towels)
Bathroom & hygiene
- Nappies (diapers)
- Tissues & face masks
- Cotton buds (Q-tips)
- Toothbrushes
Pets & garden
- Cat litter — mineral
- Cat litter — plant-based
- Animal droppings
- Cold ashes
- Shellfish shells
Packaging that isn’t recycled
- Packing polystyrene (Styrofoam)
- Parcel & pallet strapping
- “Compostable” bags — they are not
- Pens, pencils, felt tips
Not here — where it goes instead
🟡 Yellow bin
All packaging, whatever it is made of — cans, tins, foil, plastic bottles, pots, trays, films, bags, cartons, small cardboard. This is the single biggest mistake. See Yellow Bin — Recyclables.
🟤 Compost
Peelings & food scraps · coffee filters and soft paper coffee pods · crushed eggshells · citrus peel. See Compost.
🔵 Blue bin — glass
Bottles, jars and flacons. Never broken drinking glasses — those do belong here in general waste. See Blue Bin — Glass.
🔴 Déchèterie
Anything chemical, oily, electrical, bulky or building-related · large cardboard · plant pots · branches. See Déchèterie — Recycling Centre.
🟣 Shops & pharmacies
Batteries · bulbs & tubes · leftover medicines · syringes · thermometers · ink cartridges. See Take It Back — Shops & Pharmacies.
🩷 Textile bank
Clothes, shoes and household linen — even torn, holed or worn out, as long as they are clean and dry. See Textile Bank.
Handling
- Bag it and tie it. This is the one stream that must be bagged.
- Nothing hot, nothing liquid. Let ashes go fully cold first.
Printable sheet
Green Bin — A4 sheet (PDF) — print at 100 % scale, single sided. All nine sheets together: all-sheets.pdf.
Items marked † are the general French sorting rule for this stream, not entries in SMECTOM’s Mémo Tri 2026. Everything else on this page is taken from the mémo. See Waste Sorting Guide for the overview and Waste & Recycling Collection for the pickup schedule and access card.