Garbage collectors are back at work in Marseille, France’s second largest city, after staging a strike in January over working hours. Trash collection is a bargaining chip for unions workers who once dumped tons of debris on the steps of city hall in a dispute. Uncollected garbage often ends up on beaches, to the dismay of residents. 

Now the perennial threat of strikes and trash-filled streets has galvanized individuals and organizations into action, fueling a volunteer movement in a port city that is unofficially known as “France’s dirtiest city.” There is a sense that environmental issues have become too pressing to ignore, and that if the city can’t clean up its act, citizens must step in.

Environmental aid groups in the region point to an explosion in volunteers joining cleanup efforts. As last month’s strike ended, nonprofits partnered with city hall to set up distribution points in the city to hand out gloves and garbage bags to volunteers who helped remove trash from the streets.

“The people of Marseille love our city, but sometimes we don’t treat it very well,” says Eric Akopian, co-founder of Clean My Calanques, an environmental nonprofit. “We’re trying to use that pride to help people see that they can make a difference. It’s not about yelling at them or giving a moral lesson, but showing them they have the power to make change.” 

Marseille, France

As garbage bags dangle from their gloved hands, Maïa and Nour scour the bushes on the steep, rocky slopes below Notre Dame de la Garde, a glittering hilltop church in France’s second largest city. They pick up the usual – beer bottles, face masks – as well as some unexpected finds, like a gray, mouse-shaped cat bed.

The high schoolers volunteered to collect trash after Marseille’s garbage collectors went on strike in January, a stoppage that lasted more than two weeks and left over 3,000 tons of trash on sidewalks and streets; some ended up littering its Mediterranean beaches.

“I was very worried,” says Nour. “It was so dirty and when it rained, it was horrible.” 

“I know the unions were striking for a good reason, but there are huge environmental consequences,” says Maïa, who wears large-framed glasses and an oversize puffer jacket. “Everything ends up in the sea.” 

The garbage collectors eventually reached an agreement with the municipality on Feb. 2 over working hours. But Marseille’s garbage problems are far from over. Trash collection has long been a bargaining chip for unions – cleaners at the city’s train station recently stopped emptying trash cans in a work dispute – and many think Marseille deserves its unofficial title of “France’s dirtiest city.”