A week of garbage collectors’ strike, and the capital lives up to the clichés of insalubrity that stick to its skin. Nearly 5,400 tonnes of waste littered the streets of Paris on Sunday March 12, after seven days of reduced passage by cleaners and garbage truck drivers protesting against the pension reform, adopted by the Senate on Saturday March 11. In some boroughs more than others, piles of rubbish monopolize the sidewalks, provoking the anger of some residents and elected officials.
Private and public service providers, incinerators… Blockages are increasing
This difference in treatment is explained by a dual operation concerning the collection of waste in Paris. In half of the arrondissements, it is provided by city hall officials, employed by the metropolitan public waste collection service “Syctom”. This concerns the 2nd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 17th and 20th arrondissements. The other half is managed by four private providers. The most important, the Derichebourg company, takes care of the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 10th and 18th arrondissements. Waste from the 15th arrondissement is collected by Pizzorno, that from the 11th and 19th by Urbapropreté, while the 13th is handled by Sepur.
In Paris, as in other cities, the garbage collectors’ strike concerns not only public agents, but also private ones. “It’s the case […] in Paris 15, where no bin is collected, because the service provider’s garage in charge of the #collection has been blocked for several days”, explains on Twitter the assistant in charge of the cleanliness of the public space of Paris, Colombe Brossel.
If all the garbage collectors and drivers are not on strike, another factor is worsening the state of the Parisian streets. Currently, three of the four incinerators located in the inner suburbs and responsible for destroying the capital’s waste are also shut down, to protest against the pension reform: that of Ivry-sur-Seine, Issy-les- Moulineaux and Saint-Ouen. However, without an incinerator, there is no place to take the dumpsters. In the immediate future, the public waste collection service has announced that it will divert the transport of rubbish to around fifteen other treatment or storage sites outside the city.
The battle for political responsibility
The city of Paris told AFP that it had not requested police intervention at this stage to put an end to the blocking of its centers, provoking strong criticism for its inaction in the face of the accumulation of waste in its city. Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo is known for supporting the mobilization against the reform and therefore by extension the garbage collectors’ strike.
On television sets and on social networks, the right-wing opposition launched the offensive. Several mayors or deputies from Paris, such as Pierre Yves Bournazel (Horizon deputy from the 18th arrondissement) or Rachida Dati (Les Républicains mayor from the 7th arrondissement) are calling for a “minimum waste collection service” or even the urgent requisition of city hall officials to pick up the garbage. The mayor of the 6th arrondissement Jean-Pierre Lecoq, for his part, indicated that he had written to Anne Hidalgo on Friday March 10 “to mitigate the health risk caused by the strike”, without “criticizing the legitimate right to strike which our agents make use of”. . No response for now.
On Twitter, Transport Minister Clément Beaune has on his side denounced the fact that “no emergency measure, even partial” has been taken by the City of Paris. “Another example of inaction and contempt of Parisians,” he said. The cleanliness assistant Colombe Brossel also answered him on the network. “In my opinion, if the 64-year-old government’s pension reform is urgently withdrawn, incinerators and garages will be released urgently…”, she said.