Is there a French site that explains the recycling symbols on things, I’m getting very confused on what goes where
Whoever collects and treats your recycling should provide you with information as to what they can accept to recycle and what they cannot…
ask at your Maire or ask your neighbours.
It is possible that not every area/region accepts the same stuff to recycle, so worth enquiring locally.
The numbering of plastics is quite clear.
I do not understand why the French do not follow them, it would make life so much simpler.
I don’t think I posed my question properly.
I have an empty bag of bird seed and it says “sachet plastique a jeter” and a picture of a rubbish sack, so does it go in the bin for plastics or general household rubbish ? No number on the bag
I put anything like that (which I do not intend to stay in the ground for a million years 
) into my sack jaune. 
I mentioned this at a recent meeting and their Rep said that was OK, since they would prefer to sort plastic things for themselves.
For them, anything plastic which has encased food is definitely recyclable. 
But, plastic bottles go to our dechetterie, which has a special spot for them…
It seems everybody has different recycling systems, no sack jaune here, although I noticed the other day, somebody has put something hot in the household bins which caught fire and burnt them down to the ground.
Ann… how long have you been where you are currently living?? Perhaps you have missed out on the Information which the Recycling folk send out… and in the local press.
I think you will find that the minimum should go into black sacks/ground. Mine is just paper towels and paper hankies plus a little meat/bone…
Around here it seems they do their own thing. I was just wondering about plastics and the symbols on packaging. I only put a bag in the communal bins about every 3-4 weeks and tins, glass and paper go in the collection bins.
What is in your black bag?
Things that don’t have any recycling symbol and scraps of food that the dogs can’t eat
Our yellow bags are printed with pictures of what can go into them (fuzzily printed but it helps) and send out a leaflet each year - it includes far more than the items I would expect to recycle including plastics that are labelled to be thrown in the black bag.
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tea bag - bags only (the tea itself is in the compost and I am using up bags before switching to loose tea). Paper from the parrot cage (dont want to put shiny paper on the compost and havent got newspaper) wax from cheese rind - nobody including the chooks will eat it and again dont want it on the compost.
Interesting hearing about the differences. The cheese we buy has a hard but edible crust. I keep the crusty bits in a box in the freezer and add it to soups and cheese sauces. 
I had hoped teabags would decompose - are you telling me that I shall be staring at them in the compost for years to come ?? 
If I have cheese with edible crusts either I or the chickens eat that, but its the sort you might get on Gouda/Edam that gets chucked.
When I had a big potager I used to not bother about emptying tea bags but would pick out the empty bags when I was spreading old and well rotted compost and throw them away then.
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I’m hoping the paper in the teabags will eventually rot…
Same here (apart from the chickens) but I do occasionally give them to my dog Duc as a treat.
Far cheaper than buying pre-packed doggie treats/snacks. 
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What sort of tea will a ream of laser printer paper make? 
You can be the first to try it… and let me know… 
I use cloth teabags now, or the various metal mesh devices. The cloth teabags are just a mini version of my lawn shopping bags, v handy.
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