Sanitation workers in Paris were set to return to work on Wednesday amid heaps of trash that piled up over their weeks-long strike as protests against French President Emmanuel Marcon’s controversial pension bill appeared to be winding down.

Trash mounds of up to 10,000 tons along the French capital’s streets - reportedly equal to the weight of the Eiffel Tower - have become a striking visual symbol of opposition to Marcon’s bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.