[3] He taught at universities in Caen, Grenoble and Toulouse before being made préfet, or government representative and regional administrator, in the Charente in April 1871.

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.

[2] 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.

He was consul general of the canton of Saissac in the Aude 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" by the French.

Poubelle died in Paris on 15 July 1907 and is buried in the Herminis cemetery near Carcassonne; a bust depicting him is displayed outside the city's Musée des Beaux-Arts.