The Garonne in flood in Toulouse: plastic “highway”
In a few days after the flood, a Toulouse environmental protection association collected 2,500 kilos of waste, including plastic, in the Pink City.
“On the island of Ramier, at the Saint-Michel lock, we found bags from public garbage cans and black bags from garbage cans that were not provided, which were blocking the passage of fish. Many fish were dead on the banks. We called the volunteers. As soon as the decline of the Garonne ended, at the start of last week, Florence Ducroquetz, who chairs Champ d’actions, a Toulouse association born in 2016 to clean up the banks of the river, sounded the alarm. From Wednesday to Sunday, the teams of volunteers surveyed the banks on the island of Ramier, the meadow of the Filtres, the Amidonniers and the Sept-Deniers where they collected no less than 2,500 kilos of waste of all kinds. Pans, clothes, pots of yogurt, the remains of a kayak, a giant rabbit costume… everything contained in our garbage cans, to which are added the sleeping bags and tents of the homeless. “Never before have we collected so much waste. I dare not imagine what will happen to Bordeaux. It’s colossal. »
Trees covered in plastic
Florence Ducroquetz is especially shocked by the large amount of plastic that litters the banks. “The trees were covered from head to toe. “Plastic, she insists, which will decompose and end up in fish but also in water that will become our drinking water. “The Garonne should not be a waste highway”, pleads the volunteer who, on Sunday, at the Amidonniers, received the spontaneous reinforcement of many walkers. The president of the association, who is planning other outings, regrets that the garbage cans in the street near the river were not removed before the flood, and she would like nets to be installed to block the waste that arrives in the Garonne via the rainwater network. On the banks, associations of fishermen and nature protection are mobilizing in this way.