Waste in the spotlight in French unrest

The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) makes its case for the importance of the work its member companies perform by stating the “waste and recycling industry [is] essential to maintaining the quality of American life.”

“The delivery of waste and recycling services impacts all residential, commercial and industrial properties on a daily basis," the group adds.

Numerous reports from Paris and other cities in France indicate the NWRA’s emphasis on the quality-of-life aspects of the waste sector transcends borders.

A proposal by the French government to extend the retirement age by two years for many workers in that nation has met with both ad hoc protests and organized resistance by several labor organizations.

The government proposal raises the retirement age for waste and recycling collectors specifically from age 57 to 59, according to AP News, triggering a strike among such workers in Paris and other cities.

Reporting from Paris on the 16^th day of the garbage strike, Elaine Ganley of AP says: “Garbage. Heaps, mounds and piles of it are growing daily — and in some places standing higher than a human being.”

In a report, AP quotes Parisians—even several who are supportive of the workers—as saying the smell is becoming unpleasant and rats increasingly are being seen.

The public health aspects of the situation have caused the Paris police chief to order “674 sanitation personnel and 206 garbage trucks back to work to provide a minimal service” AP says, citing a tweet from the police department.

Strikers continue to block entry to an incinerator that handles much of Paris’ municipal solid waste (MSW), so, AP says the picked up garbage is being “stored” outside of the city. As of March 20, the Paris government estimated about 9,300 tons of MSW remained on the streets.

Whether waste sector professionals support or oppose the strike, they may be heartened to read Ganley’s comment that the strike “has made garbage collectors, long taken for granted, visible.”

She adds, “Some of Paris’ fabled narrow streets are more choked than usual, forcing people on foot to pass through garbage heaps single file. The scent of rancid, rotting garbage increasingly wafts through the air as spring arrives and the weather grows milder. Seats at some sidewalk cafes located near heaps of rubbish are empty.”

In March 2020, NWRA and other waste- and recycling-related organizations acted quickly to ensure policymakers understood that discarded materials collection was, in the words of NWRA, “critical infrastructure.”

Residents of and visitors to Paris in the springtime this year are getting a first-hand look (and smell) of why that case can be easy to make.