“Here, it’s a shame!”: Ludovic, the Parisian garbage collector who went to war against incivility

“Thanks for the addition. Come on, I’ll do the little subscriber dance for you!”. Alone in front of his phone, Ludovic begins a quick choreography with his hands, warmly thanking the Internet user who has just registered for his TikTok account. Like every day around 11 a.m., the Parisian garbage collector launched his first “live” on the social network – in just two minutes, 238 users have already joined the video. Seated in his premises in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, Ludovic patiently answers each of their questions. The contents of his midday meal, the place where he will work during the day, his schedules, his plans for the weekend, his monthly salary… Nothing escapes the curiosity of followers. “Their questions don’t bother me, it’s as if I were having lunch with them. There are some who have followed me almost every day for three years, we know each other, by dint!”.

Since 2019, the forties has achieved a certain notoriety on social networks. More than 260,000 people regularly follow his adventures on TikTok, while his Twitter and Instagram accounts have 14,300 and 6,700 followers respectively. The recipe for success ? The garbage collector publishes, daily and with humor, videos of his work: before and after the emptying of garbage cans, of streets cleaned or swept up excrement, cans sent directly in a plastic bag via pretty throws, waste recovered from the Seine using magnets… All against a backdrop of popular and dynamic music, while raising awareness of the deterioration of public space. “And above all, I never forget to end my videos with a little bow,” says Ludovic with a smile. A habit which makes it possible to “taunt” the polluters and to remind “his loyalty” to the city, which he has been cleaning tirelessly for five years.

Despite the unsavory images of some videos, the public is there: his most followed live brought together more than 55,000 people live, hypnotized by cleaning streets with the Glutton, an imposing electric vacuum cleaner. Her most viewed video has been viewed by more than 1.8 million users on TikTok. “It was the cleaning of a huge excrement”, loose Ludovic. But the garbage collector wants to be clear. “We may pick up shit, but it’s not shit, what we do”. Because beyond the simple “satisfying” videos and the little jokes launched on his TikTok lives, the man really wants to make Internet users aware of the cleanliness of his city and his profession. “People don’t realize it, but it’s thanks to us that they can ventilate their apartments without feeling a foul odor and walk around without skidding on rubbish. Our job is necessary, and I’m proud to do it “.

“I dreamed of myself in their place”

It is also to defend himself against disgruntled or violent residents that Ludovic first decided to stage himself on TikTok. “My first year, I got spat on at a street corner. They shouted at me: ‘Dirty civil servant, you’re paid for this, pick up the shit!’. I didn’t say anything to anyone, but it stayed,” he recalls. In the back of a garbage truck, in 2019, he is honked by impatient motorists, who protest at the slowness of the vehicle. “It was the last straw. I was picking up their waste, and I was getting booed for it! So I decided to dance to annoy them”, says Ludovic. A colleague takes it on video, then the garbage collector decides to publish these images on TikTok. “It made 345,000 views. I hallucinated”. A crazy success, which Ludovic considers today as a victory. “We too often see parents pointing at us by telling their kids that they will end up like us if they don’t work at school. This has to stop. If my videos can give another vision of the profession, so much the better”, pleads the one who, as a child, already observed with wonder the ballet of the ripeurs from the driveway of his house in Montélimar. “I was jealous of them: I too wanted to get in the back of the truck. I dreamed of myself in their place”.

However, it will take a long time before Ludovic manages to proudly wear his green uniform, flanked by the logo of the city of Paris. In the book Later, you will be a garbage collector, which will be published on August 31 by City editions, the forty-year-old retraces his dented life course, marked by the incessant teasing of other students, runaways and his placement in foster care at the age of 14. “These streets of Paris that I sweep today, I know them better than anyone, having slept there for almost ten years”, he even confides in his biography, co-written with journalist Isabelle Millet. “I was a lost kid, who couldn’t find his place anywhere. I was turbulent, I did some bullshit,” he adds to L’Express. Moved, he remembers the day when, while begging in a train station in Valence (Drôme), he came across his former French teacher. “She gave me a 50-franc note, asking me what I was doing there. I’ve never been so ashamed in all my life. I accompanied her to the train, telling myself that the things change”.

The young man then decides to “go to the capital”, and falls in love with its streets. “The first thing I did when I arrived was kiss the Eiffel Tower: I didn’t care if it was full of bacteria. It was so beautiful!”. In Paris, he sleeps in turn with friends, in hostels or associative structures. “I assure you that during these ten years of wandering, I have practically never been hungry and never been cold”, he insists in his book. Good encounters will later lead him to find stable accommodation, then to become a tobacconist, a caregiver in palliative care, or even an assistant in a nursing home for autistic people. One day, a friend of a friend, himself a garbage collector, warns him that the town hall of Paris is recruiting. “It was the trigger: I passed the competition with flying colors. For the first time in my life, I had the feeling of being the best… And of finding myself exactly in my place”.

“It’s a shame here”

Five years later, slaloming through the streets of the 1st arrondissement with his trolley and his broom, Ludovic seems to have long since forgotten the little galleys of his years of wandering. Smiling, he picks up the smallest piece of plastic or receipt – “even those from McDonald’s, which have the annoying tendency to stick to the pavement” -, imagines the “stories” of the cardboard glasses he finds – “how found there, who drank from it, and why didn’t he throw it away?” – and almost rejoices in cleaning up street corners cluttered with empty bottles and used handkerchiefs. Phone slung over his shoulder, he continues to film himself live, taking his subscribers to task. “Here, it’s a shame: I reported this to the city so that they react, I can’t remove it on my own!”, He gets angry, lifting a huge manhole cover , filled with thousands of cigarette butts and giving off a strong smell of urine. On the other side of the screen, the followers are indignant.

In the streets he sweeps, the star of social networks is now recognized. “It’s the guy from TikTok!”, whispers a young man shyly to his friends as the trolley passes, near Les Halles. “Come on guys!” Encourages Ludovic, pushing the small group to introduce themselves. “We saw you on TikTok, it’s cool what you do. How much does the garbage collector earn?” Asks one of the boys, a bit provocative. The question does not bother the official, paid between 1,500 and 1,700 euros per month – not counting the “200 euros monthly” surplus generated thanks to TikTok, where his fans have the possibility of offering him money. “But I’m not doing this for that. The important thing is to limit pollution. You don’t throw your cigarette butts on the ground for example!”, warns Ludovic. Sincerely interested, the high school students listen to him attentively, before shaking his hand and turning back. “I tell myself that the next time they want to throw something in the street, they will go straight to the trash,” hopes the garbage collector. “Well yes, we will think of you Ludo!”, shouts one of the young people from the other end of the street. In the meantime, the latter took the time to connect to the live, and followed the conversation from his smartphone.

“Sometimes I’m afraid that all this escapes me”

Within his workshop, the colleagues, too, are proud of Ludovic’s new reputation. “Thanks to him, we are more respected. People are finally realizing our work”, explains one of them. “Finally, we see positive videos of garbage collectors who do their job well, and not only those who denounce full bins,” adds another. “Videos like those of #SaccageParis, for example, have done us a lot of harm by only showing what is wrong”, abounds Ludovic, referring to the movement born on social networks which denounces – among other things – the supposed filth from the city. It doesn’t matter: those whom the garbage collector calls the “haters” will not extinguish his good humor. “And in addition, despite all that, Ludo never gets a big head!”, Adds a colleague, leafing through his friend’s book.

However, there would be something. In two years, the anonymous garbage collector has been interviewed a dozen times by various online media, television channels and local newspapers. This Tuesday, his conversation with L’Express is even cut off by the call of another journalist, who wishes to meet him before the release of his book. Ludovic accepts, before frowning slightly. “Sometimes I’m a little afraid that all of this will escape me. Between my personal projects and the media pressure, I panic a little”. However, the former caregiver knows what he wants. Yes to the press, yes to associative projects, no to political figures who would try to approach him. “I’m not here for that,” he eludes.

Because outside working hours, the man admits to devoting “300% of his time” to the fight against Parisian waste. Recently, he went around the gates of Paris with his gloves and his trash can, bivouacking for several days in the four corners of the capital. On TikTok, he also films himself during 24-hour lives, or during depollution days in Dunkirk or Marseille. “I have new ideas every five minutes!” admits the garbage collector, soon dreaming of a journey of more than 50 kilometers on foot between Estampes, where he lives, and Paris – still armed with his broom and his cart. During September, a new challenge awaits him: he will leave during his holidays for a tour of the bridges of Paris, to tell their story and pick up all the rubbish found on his way… All live and on TikTok, of course.