Eugène Poubelle
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Eugène-René Poubelle (; 15 April 1831 – 15 July 1907) was a French lawyer and diplomat who introduced
waste container A waste container, also known as a dustbin, rubbish bin, trash can, garbage can, wastepaper basket, and wastebasket, among other names, is a type of container intended to store waste that is usually made out of metal or plastic. The words "r ...
s to
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
and made their use compulsory. This introduction was so innovative at the time that Poubelle's surname became synonymous with waste bins (''la poubelle'') and remains the most common French word for a trash can.


Biography

Eugène Poubelle was born to a
bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...
family in
Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...
. He studied to become a lawyer and obtained a PhD. He taught at universities in Caen,
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and
Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...
before being made
préfet A prefect (, plural , both ) in France is the State's representative in a department or region. Regional prefects are ''ex officio'' the departmental prefects of the regional prefecture. Prefects are tasked with upholding the law in the departme ...
, or government representative and regional administrator, in the
Charente Charente (; Saintongese: ''Chérente''; ) is a department in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. It is named after the river Charente, the most important and longest river in the department, and also the r ...
in April 1871. He then successively became préfet for
Isère Isère ( , ; ; , ) is a landlocked Departments of France, department in the southeastern French Regions of France, region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Named after the river Isère (river), Isère, it had a population of 1,271,166 in 2019.
,
Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...
,
Doubs Doubs (, ; ; ) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Eastern France. Named after the river Doubs, it had a population of 543,974 in 2019.Bouches-du-Rhône Bouches-du-Rhône ( ; , ; ; "the Mouths of the Rhône") is a Departments of France, department in southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var (department), Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the sout ...
and finally, from 1883 to 1896, for the Seine
département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...
. Préfet of the Seine was a very powerful position, and the préfet effectively exercised in Paris the powers that the elected mayor would have had in other French cities. On 7 March 1884 Poubelle decreed that owners of buildings must provide their residents with three covered containers of 40 to 120 litres to hold household refuse. The refuse was to be sorted into compostable items, paper and cloth, and crockery and shells. The population of Paris, close to two million, needed a system to empty the containers regularly. Parisians began to name their boxes after Poubelle, a habit encouraged by the newspaper ''Le Figaro'', which called them ''Boîtes Poubelle''. The boxes met resistance, owners of buildings resenting the cost of providing and supervising the bins, and traditional rag-and-bone men, the ''chiffonniers'', seeing a threat to their living. The boxes deteriorated but the principles of what Poubelle established survived. But not until the end of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
did dustbins and their collection by municipalities become common. By then ''poubelle'' as a noun had been established, and was first recognized by a supplement of the ''Grand Dictionnaire Universel du 19ème Siècle'' in 1890. Eugène Poubelle also campaigned successfully for direct
drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils can prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditions that harm root gro ...
. A resurgence of
cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...
in 1892 led to his decreeing in 1894 that all buildings were to be connected direct to the sewers at the expense of the building's owner.


Later career

Poubelle became ambassador to the
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in 1896 and to the Roman court in 1898. He was consul general of the canton of Saissac in the
Aude Aude ( ; ) is a Departments of France, department in Southern France, located in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region and named after the river Aude (river), Aude. The departmental council also calls it " ...
from 1898 to 1904, and president of the Société Centrale d'Agriculture de l'Aude, where he defended the interests of wine in Southern France, also called "
Le Midi Southern France, also known as the south of France or colloquially in French as , is a geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi atlantique'', Atlas e ...
" by the French.


Death and commemoration

Poubelle died in Paris on 15 July 1907 and is buried in the Herminis cemetery near
Carcassonne Carcassonne is a French defensive wall, fortified city in the Departments of France, department of Aude, Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. It is the prefectures in France, prefecture of the department. ...
; a bust depicting him is displayed outside the city's Musée des Beaux-Arts. Rue Eugène Poubelle, a street between the Avenue de Versailles and the
Quai Louis-Blériot The Quai Louis-Blériot is a quay alongside the Seine in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was known as the Quai d'Auteuil until it was renamed in honour of French aviator Louis Blériot in 1937. References

Buildings and struc ...
in Paris's
16th arrondissement The 16th arrondissement of Paris (; ) is the westernmost of the 20 arrondissements of Paris, the capital city of France. Located on the city's Right Bank, it is adjacent to the 17th and 8th arrondissements to the northeast, as well as to the ...
, is named after him. On 15 April 2021
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celebrated his 190th birthday with a
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.


See also

*
History of waste management History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...


References


External links


Story of the waste from Lutetia to Paris, The work of the Prefet Eugène Poubelle, Planete echo association, Paris, French
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poubelle, Eugene 1831 births 1907 deaths 19th-century French lawyers 19th-century French diplomats People from Caen Prefects of Isère Prefects of Corsica (department) Prefects of Doubs Prefects of Bouches-du-Rhône