PARIS: ONCE ROMANTIC CITY IS NOW A GARBAGE DUMP AMID PENSION STRIKE

Wed 15 March 2023:

As sanitation workers strike for the ninth day on Tuesday, Paris, the city of romance, is turning into a garbage dump, with tonnes of stinking garbage piling up on the city’s sidewalks.

The growing amount of garbage is a clear indication of workers’ outrage over a bill that would raise the French retirement age by two years.

The garbage cans are overflowing, and the food rotting in some of the garbage bags is stinking up the city. More than 7,000 tonnes of garbage was piling up on the city’s roads as of Tuesday.

Apart from Paris, cities like Rennes, Le Havre and Nantes, Rennes have also been affected by the strike. The pension strikes were joined by the refuse collectors a week ago and the authorities of Paris said that half of the districts of the city, which fall under the council workers, have been badly hit by the action.

The strikers have blocked three waste treatment sites and a fourth remains partially closed. Paris council stated that in the 10 districts, which fall under private companies, the services have been running normally.

However, according to a few reports, the activists have been trying to prevent garbage collection in those areas. “It’s a bit too much because it was even hard to navigate” some streets, said Nadiia Turkay, a 24-year-old British visitor.

She further stated that it was “upsetting, to be honest,” because on “beautiful streets … you see all the rubbish and everything. The smell.”