Several municipal agents are mobilized on Blériot beach to clear it of the many wastes found there. Since the beginning of the summer, 700m3 have already been collected.
Blériot beach (Pas-de-Calais) has had a cleanup since the start of the summer season. From 7 a.m., several municipal agents are busy on the seafront collecting waste.
Jessy Scotte, municipal agent, travels the beach to “make sure it is clean and pleasant for people to come to the beach”. For good reason, he found numerous objects, namely “cans, plastic bags, McDonald’s bags”, he lists.
Six other people are cleaning the sandbank alongside him. This work has collected more than 700m3 of waste since the beginning of the summer.
Pollution after destruction of beach huts
This maintenance is appreciated by visitors, because it helps avoid putting certain beach-goers in danger. “Unfortunately, we find lots of waste, especially glass,” laments Audrey, a childminder, who is on Blériot beach with several young children.
She therefore chooses areas that have already been cleaned “to be sure that there is no danger for children”. This pollution would be partly caused by the demolition of 200 beach huts last year, according to the town hall.
Olivier Dumont, communications officer for the town of Blériot Plage, explains that various objects are found “more or less deep” and that the play of the tides sometimes brings to the surface “waste, pieces of wood, scrap metal”. He assures that the town “works every day to clean up the area”.
Municipal agents present on the ground will roam the beach until the end of the summer. It remains to be seen what total quantity of waste they will manage to collect at the end of the season.
Jérémy Mahieux, Aurélie Chialvo, with Mélanie Hennebique
