The French capital has inaugurated its first zero waste street. The selected road, 500 meters long and located in the tenth district of the city, will serve as a laboratory to gain an in-depth understanding of the problems associated with waste, and experiment with solutions to reduce waste, which can be extended to the entire network. urban.

However, the pilot street, appropriately called rue de Paradis (or Paradise), has been chosen for its characteristics, which are a “summary” of the city. It has nearly 6,000 residents and various uses – schools, shops, businesses, bars and restaurants – and its sidewalks are notable for being very narrow, so any solution that works on this street it can be replicated later in the rest of Paris.

The initiative, launched by the district council and the association Zero Waste Paris, has several fronts to go from 9 weekly tons of waste production – the current street figure – to zero. In order to reduce the consumption of containers, the project calls for giving priority to products that are sold in bulk, and several businesses have already joined the initiative and invite their customers to come with their own containers. Businesses are also invited to redistribute their leftover food, and for this purpose a collective refrigerator will be installed on the street. A shared composter for organic waste will also be installed on the street for the use of the neighborhood.

The association will organize meetings with the neighbors to raise awareness, and among them there will be practical workshops to learn about planned obsolescence or to learn how to produce your own cosmetic products at home, for example.

In France, only 22% of waste is recycled. In rue de Paradis, the one-year goal is to reduce waste production per person by 10%, and if this first goal is achieved, the initiative will expand to other streets and neighborhoods in Paris.