Fed up with people throwing litter on the ground in the COVID-19 pandemic, Paris street sweeper Ludovic Franceschet has taken to TikTok to spread his message: put your trash in a garbage can.
The 45-year-old has become an unlikely youth culture hit in France with time-lapse videos of him sweeping up piles of trash, dancing and making heart-felt appeals to people to keep the planet clean.
"Incivility destroys the planet," he said, adding that while people throw trash properly when they see garbage collectors roaming around, they just leave them on the ground when no one is watching.
Franceschet's TikTok account has 59,000 followers and 608,000 "likes." Some of his video posts have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
As he worked his way around the Les Halles district of central Paris on Thursday (March 4) with his broom and hand-cart, one young man broke off from his fast-food lunch and asked: "Are you the guy from TikTok?" and went on to thank him for cleaning up the square.
Franceschet said from the age of 7, he was picking up cigarette butts from the family garden and paper bags from the street.
He has previously worked as a caregiver for cancer patients and autistic adults. But he said garbage collecting is his true calling.
"My dream is simple, to have a clean planet," he told Reuters, tearing up.
He works seven-hour shifts, and, after tax is paid, earns around 1,500 euros ($1,789) per month, he said.
In the pandemic, eating in restaurants and cafes is banned, so many people are eating takeaway in public squares. That has led to a rise in the volume of trash in the streets - and more work for Franceschet and his colleagues.
His journey into TikTok stardom began when he realized it was not enough just to pick up the rubbish, and he needed to educate young people about their civic duty.
"I made videos," he said. "It got 100 likes, I said: 'Wow, let's try to go further.' And then I realized it reaches the young generation."
His followers include fellow garbage collectors, a profession that he says must be given greater value.
REUTERS