Marseille faced with the problem of illegal dumping, “we close the big black spots but open mini-unloading”
Marseille has, among other things, a reputation as a dirty city and it’s not always stolen. Jean-Yves Sayag, metropolitan councilor in charge of the fight against illegal dumping, knows something about it. He is one of those who, in 2018, warned of the proliferation of illegal dumping carried out in the city by unscrupulous entrepreneurs.
“It’s actually something that has always existed, I just made it a little more visible”, explains the one who entered politics after his media coverage and a rant filmed on a plot of land in the Capitaine-Gèze district strewn wreckage of cars and caravans. “It buzzed and after quickly, the services came to dump everything. »
Closure of “big black spots” but opening of “mini-wild dumps”
The fight against wild dumps, he has made the fight of his life and has not stopped, between holding his snack and his political activity, to track them down. A bit like Don Quixote faces the windmills. “We manage to close the big black spots, like the Trois Lucs cemetery, but very often that just relocates the problem. New wild mini-dumps are opening,” he observes.
A walk on certain sectors is enough to be convinced. At the bottom of La Madrague-Ville, a stone’s throw from the CMA-CGM tower and on the edge of the Euromed urban renewal program lie mountains of tires among the rubble, an old fuel tank, the remains of a dwelling that been emptied or construction site residues such as broken tiles and some expired food.
Bullying
Those who savagely dump this rubbish are well organized, they have even traded in it. “Companies charge building contractors between 350 and 500 euros to clear their site of waste. Then, instead of taking it all to the recycler, they pay small hands, who for a ticket are responsible for depositing it where there is room. In 2021, the Marseille public prosecutor’s office was seized of 72 procedures for such offenses. And for some, it’s storefront businesses. “Three months ago, we came to burn my snack. Six outbreaks of fire were noted, ”he grumbles, before a very Marseille tirade against those who could have done this. “Finally, this is not the first bullying. »
To clean these black spots, the metropolis of Aix-Marseille spends 1.6 million euros each year, but does not have police powers and many places where waste is dumped belong to other communities or to private. At the end of December, the city of Marseilles voted to create an environmental brigade, made up of municipal police officers who had received specific training, and planned to install mobile cameras. Since the beginning of 2022, it has transmitted 15 cases to the prosecution.