Usually, 250 dump trucks circulate daily in Paris to collect 3000 tons of waste. BERTRAND GUAY / AFP
According to the town hall of Paris, there are still 9300 tons of waste on the sidewalks of the capital. Delphine Bürkli, various right mayor of the IXe district, estimates that “it will take one to two weeks to get rid of everything”.
If the mountains of waste piled up on the sidewalks of the capital are slowly decreasing, Parisians will still have to wait before seeing them disappear. According to Delphine Bürkli, various right mayor of the IXe arrondissement, «it will take one to two weeks to get rid of everything“. This Monday, 9,300 tons of waste were still strewn on the sidewalks, according to the town hall, down slightly after the 10,000 tons on Friday.
Of the twenty Parisian arrondissements, ten are managed directly by the municipal services and are affected by the disturbances. To unblock the situation, the Prefecture of Police ordered staff requisitions last Thursday. According to the town hall, 118 dump trucks made collection rounds on Saturday and 168 on Sunday. In the IXe borough, 26 six- and ten-ton dump trucks circulated in this way, but “it would take at least 80 to overcome all the trash cans“says Delphine Bürkli. “This Monday, out of 195 skips planned, 122 could not be emptied, the partial or filtering blockage of all SYCTOM installations making it very complicated to empty the skips and therefore the collection», specifies the municipality in its press release.
A strike maintained at least until Thursday
In addition to garbage collectors, the three waste incineration centers – Ivry-sur-Seine, Issy-les-Moulineaux and Saint-Ouen – are still blocked by filter dams. This Monday, the Romainville tri-transfer center, in Seine-Saint-Denis, was blocked for the first time. As part of the requisition, the police intervened and allowed about ten trucks out of 80, driven by non-strikers, to leave. Usually, 250 dump trucks circulate daily in Paris to collect 3000 tons of waste, including the evening service.
For the CGT and the waste treatment sector, this requisition is above all “a political communication stunt from the government». «We have activated our legal services because this requisition is a non-constitutional order of jurisdiction, which is neither urgent nor vital“Adds the union, which will maintain the strike at least until Thursday. It should be noted that employees who refuse their requisition risk six months’ imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 euros.