City of Light Green Bins & Overflowing Trash

A photo essay of Paris amidst a garbage collection strike

St Patrick’s Day in Paris (Photo by William Sidnam)

For the last few weeks, Paris has been slowly turning into a landfill.

Ever since fonctionnaires, or civil servants, went on strike to protest the government’s retirement age reforms, rubbish hasn’t been collected in 10 of the capital’s 20 arrondissements.

The result is that, over the course of a month, the piles of trash have grown larger and larger, a visual testimony to public indignation. On some of the narrower footpaths, the rubbish has begun to take up so much real estate that you’re forced to walk on the road. On other streets, you can find plastic soda bottles blowing in the wind, laying to rest the question of how many roads a man must walk down once and for all.

A pile of rubbish outside a cathedral (Photo by William Sidnam)

Rubbish next to restaurants (Photo by William Sidnam)

Cardboard boxes outside a lighting store (Photo by William Sidnam)