The Ill river gets an XXL grooming in Strasbourg this Saturday September 11. Supported by divers and twenty volunteers, the Alsace Nature association surveyed the banks and searched the depths to pick up the rubbish, about thirty bags. The opportunity to make passers-by aware of waste management.

Butts on cigarette ends

Gaspard, ten years old, waste clip in his hands, prefers to take this operation as a game: “We challenge ourselves, we weigh our bag to find out who picked up the most“At his side, two of his friends were convinced by the activity.”If the kids don’t help us clean up … it won’t work, considers her mother, Claire, trash bag in hand, they are the ones who will be able to save the planet, we are counting on them ! “

The act of throwing to the ground has not yet been abandoned. – Marie Kneib, cleaning manager for Alsace Nature.

The volunteers are separated into eight small groups. Some run along the banks, others plunge into the surrounding alleys. Jules, his eyes riveted in the meanders of the cobblestones, has no more cigarette butts which he picks up. “It’s like looking for gold, except I won’t be rich in the end“, quips the official, searching the corners of a sidewalk. His motivation: sensitize passers-by : “Doing it in front of people, it allows them to succeed in questions, even if they do nothing, they say to themselves: “Oh well, finally, I will try to throw less.“

Scavenger divers

In addition to the volunteers along the banks, the operation was also deployed in the depths of the Ill, sometimes with some surprises. Divers have discovered, at the Quai des Bateliers, bicycles and other road signs thrown overboard. A funny fishing that filled a dumpster. “It’s as if we had a dumpster every 50 linear meters of the river“, notes Marie Kneib, in charge of cleaning for Alsace Nature.

The volunteer regrets that mentalities on waste management were not yet sufficiently evolved: “The gesture of throwing on the ground has not yet been abandoned … Overall, I do not think that the bikes that we find in the Ill have taken off.“The waste collected by the volunteers is mainly single-use plastic packaging and glass bottles.

Alsace Nature carried out this operation as part of the Water festival in Strasbourg. Stands are installed until Sunday on the Quai des Bateliers.