A spartan race the Paris Marathon this year? A few days ago, the holding of this mythical race, which promises a passage through the most beautiful monuments of the capital was not proven. In question: the demonstrations against the pension reforms, authorized during the day and spontaneous in the evening, and the mounds of rubbish which littered the sidewalks. A few hours before the big start of the 2023 edition at the top of the most beautiful avenue in the world, 20 minutes wondered if the garbage collectors’ strike, which has filled the streets of the capital with tons of uncollected waste in recent weeks, was not going to turn it into a gigantic obstacle course.
So we put on our running sneakers and covered the 42.125 kilometers (or almost) of the course a few days in advance. Happiness or coincidence? The garbage collectors have suspended their movement since Wednesday and are gradually absorbing the delay over the past three weeks. But 10,000 tonnes of waste cannot be evacuated in a jiffy, especially when two of the capital’s three incinerators are still experiencing occasional blockages. “If the garages are not subject to blockages, access to Syctom sites remains complicated, with partial or total blockages of the incinerators preventing the emptying of the trucks in an efficient manner and not yet making it possible to collect the remaining waste from optimal way”, underlined in a point of situation Wednesday the town hall of Paris.