Garbage collectors caught tipping the contents of the green bins (intended for household garbage) and that of the yellow bins (reserved for packaging, recyclable paper) into the same dump truck!
Taken from the report "Waste: the great lies of recycling", filmed discreetly between January and April 2021 in the 18th century, this edifying scene which, according to Paul Labrosse, author of the documentary, was repeated several nights, will be broadcast on Sunday evening from 9:05 pm on M 6 in the program “Zone interdite”.
Asked by the journalist, one of the garbage collectors involved, an employee of the Derichebourg company, a city provider for collection, replied: “Because you believe that in the 18th century, people sort waste?
“As if selective sorting were the prerogative of beautiful neighborhoods… Asked by the television channel, Derichebourg did not follow up.
An "unacceptable attitude" for the City of Paris
Assistant in charge of the cleanliness of public spaces, sorting and waste reduction, Colombe Brossel (PS) does not hide her indignation: “This attitude which consists in sending to the incinerator waste which should have been recycled is unacceptable.
By this practice, the service provider betrays the contract that binds it to the City and also the moral contract that the Town Hall has concluded for twenty years with Parisians by providing them with an additional bin for recycling free of charge.
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And specifies that "the mixture of the contents of the green and yellow bins is accepted only in three cases: in period of heat wave or very cold, during a strike or when household garbage was thrown by inattention in a yellow bin".
If "it is not legally possible to issue a verbal retrospective on the basis of images shot this winter and which do not belong to us", Colombe Brossel announces: "The direction of cleanliness and water has received the company Derichebourg in June and reminded each of the five service providers involved in this area of the rules.
We took the opportunity to strengthen the control methods and financial penalties.
Controls were increased and surveillance strengthened in the 18th century.
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Checks carried out in unmarked cars
Every evening, in an unmarked car, one or two inspectors follow (at random or after observations made by residents) a dump truck to ensure that the work is carried out in accordance with the specifications. In 2019, all offenses combined (forgetting a bin, lack of visual inspection of the contents of the yellow bin, non-compliance with the itinerary or the Highway Code, etc.), the total amount of fines imposed on companies responsible for waste collection (Pizzorno, Veolia, etc.) amounted to 50,000 euros.
While recalling that "Paris is the only city in France where household waste is collected every day, or 3,000 tonnes daily", the deputy announces that "from September 2022, the yellow bins will be collected three times per week and no longer twice because there is more and more packaging ”.
Currently, municipal services collect garbage in the 2nd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 17th and 20th centuries.
In the ten other districts, private companies are responsible for it, as in the 18th century.
This mixed system was set up in the early 1980s when Jacques Chirac was mayor of Paris.
The city of Paris's cleanliness and water department directly employs 6,900 garbage collectors whose mission is to clean all the streets of the capital and also to collect garbage in half of the arrondissements.