Abstract: Mercier’s range of writing on the topic of city waste turns out to be very large. While the economics of waste interest the philanthropic reformer with his fondness of city planning, they also have an impact on the author’s poetics. He is fascinated by all forms of trash collection in the city, and later by the collection of corpses during the Reign of Terror, as well as that of the debris left behind by vandalism in the revolutionary flea market.
