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The garbage collectors of the City of Paris in full collection of the green bins, November 6, 2019. Anne Bernas / RFI

The most beautiful city in the world will it be still in twenty years? The French capital is working to implement an ever more innovative and environmentally friendly waste management policy. But the task is difficult because the quantities of waste increase.

Paris is waking up. It is 6 o'clock in the morning. Employees of the town hall leave the workshop 4/20 of the twentieth arrondissement. In the darkness and drizzle of this month of November, everyone is preparing for the task entrusted to him a few moments earlier. And the work is not lacking. The carousel of the sweepers and garbage collectors runs at full speed. It must be said that Paris and its more than two million inhabitants, it is about 3,000 tons of waste collected daily by a thousand employees, more than a million tons per year. However, according to the Paris city hall, nearly 70% of the contents of the trash can be avoided, through actions of reduction, reuse and recovery.

" In the twentieth, we are at about ten tons a day! The dump trucks have a well-defined route, depending on the day they pick up green lids or yellow lids (recycling, ed). When we detect an anomaly in a yellow bin, we let it go with the green bins, "says an employee of the site of the Bagnolet gate. The machine is well oiled and garbage collectors quickly spot if something is wrong in the sorting of waste, especially if " in a building the sort is neglected, it is reported automatically ".

If the quantity of correctly sorted waste increases year by year (even if only 20% of the waste goes into the yellow bin, which is half of the French average), this is not the case for household waste. for bulky. The consumption of packaged products, meals on the go, etc. is such that the trend is on the rise. Proof of this is the quantity of trash bags used, " not less than 2,000 a week just for the 4/20 workshop ," says the storekeeper of the site. As for the bulky, the agents of the city hall of Paris confirm it: they are simply overwhelmed.

From 6am, dustmen and sweepers get involved in the cleaning of Paris. Anne Bernas / RFI

How to better manage the influx of waste

To cope with this influx of waste, Paris is trying to work for the reuse of consumer goods and put an end to waste. When we know that Parisian food represents 15% of their trash and that among them 40% are still packed, it is a long-term effort to reverse the trend. Some 600,000 million euros are allocated each year to the cleanliness and waste management service of the most beautiful city in the world.

" The goal today is to reduce the amount of waste, especially those sent to incineration, " concedes Paul Simondon, deputy mayor of Paris, in charge of cleanliness and waste management. The era is packaging, or over-packaging and over-packaging, regrets the elected Parisian who explains being in a " company of permanent delivery ".

However, Parisians are more and more good students in sorting: " When we suggest people to pay attention to their waste, explains Paul Simondon, and when we simplify the way to sort, not only they sort better, but there is also an awareness of the issue of waste and a decrease in the amount of waste produced. Thus, in the first six months of 2019, there were ten thousand tons less waste that was sent to incineration compared to 2018, or 2,500 dump trucks less. The city of Paris has set a goal of zero disposable plastic waste for the Games 2024, " which requires a huge mobilization to offer reusable systems ."

Bulk agents lament a growing workload each year. Anne Bernas / RFI

Parisians take action against bio-waste

We must get out of the green bin which can be maximized, says Paul Simondon. And among the proposed solutions, composting is fashionable both in individuals and in some institutions and schools. The craze is such that vermicomposters are also distributed free to Parisians wanting to make their own compost and are trained by agents of the town hall.

Also, beside the green, yellow and white garbage cans are now lined in three districts of brown garbage cans reserved for bio-waste, to encourage the population to move to sorting food waste. We must also equip all homes sorting bins. According to Paul Simondon, 15% of Parisian buildings do not have yellow bins, 30% do not have white bins.

Nothing is lost, nothing is created ...

But everything does not change. " We must give everyone the opportunity to sort, " says the elected. Once the circuit is finished, the dump truck (which contains an average of 6 to 7 tonnes of waste) goes to one of the garbage dumps on the outskirts of Paris and then leaves for a tour. Waste of all kinds taken out of Paris by the dump trucks is dumped in the sorting centers and Sytcom (the union of collection and treatment of garbage). They are sorted again then recycled (19.6%), incinerated (77.9%) or buried (2.5%).

In addition, today some of the food waste is used to produce biogas. It is indeed much more interesting to recycle a food waste than to incinerate it, since incinerating a food waste simply means burning water ...

► Also read: Recycling: what are the logos on packaging?

Only glass waste is recovered by another company. In 2017, Sytcom incinerated 1.87 million tonnes of waste. The incineration of waste makes it possible to produce electricity; it is used for the operation of the plant and is also sold to ERDF. In addition, the steam from the incineration plants supplies 300,000 housing equivalent of 70m2 in heating.

It is 9am in the underground room of the workshop of the Bagnolet gate. The day has risen. Dust collectors and sweepers complete their first tour and gather around a coffee. They leave a few minutes later, each to their task, so that Paris remains the most beautiful (and cleanest) city in the world.

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