Pubel, Eugene

Pubel was born into a wealthy family of the Norman Kahn . As a student, he studied law and soon received a degree . Pubel taught at the universities of Caen, Grenoble and Toulouse until he switched to administrative work. In 1871, he became the prefect of Charente , after which he held the same position in the departments of Isère , Corsica , Du , Bush du Rhone .

In 1883, Pubel received the influential post of Prefect of the Seine in Paris. In the same year, he prepared a decree obliging homeowners to set up containers for garbage collection. The law was passed next spring, and it provided for 3 containers (according to some sources, 2 containers) for different types of garbage : food waste, paper and cloth, glass and ceramics. The containers, whose volume was also regulated, had to be wooden with a metal coating inside to avoid fire. The initiative provoked opposition from homeowners, whose expenses were increasing, and garbage collectors of that time, whose existence was threatened by reform. The new containers began to ironically be called by the surname of the prefect “pubel”. Currently, this term has no emotional connotation and is universally used in French for garbage containers.

In 1894, after the fifth cholera pandemic, Pubel managed to pass another controversial law, requiring homeowners to connect buildings to a common sewage system at their own expense. In 1896, he left the post of prefect and was appointed to Rome as the Ambassador of France to the Vatican . In 1898, Pubel returned to France and until 1904 served as consul general of the Aude department. In 1907, he died and was buried in Carcassonne (Aude). The short street in the 16th arrondissement of Paris next to the Grenelle bridge is named after Poubel.

• Eugène Poubelle, l'inventeur du tri sélectif, par Pierre Bezbakh
• Jour par Jour, Eugène Poubelle