“We can’t see the end of it”
Before setting off to track down waste, distribution of gloves and green bin bags to the ten volunteers gathered to clean up the mythical Canebière in Marseille and its cobblestones, as far as the Old Port. The garbage collectors’ strike was lifted on Thursday, February 3, the third in four months, but the streets are still littered with waste. A few meters and Sophie’s fishing is pretty good: “A lot of cigarette butts, plastic, scratch tickets, canslists the volunteer. When we know that all of this is going to end up in the sea, that it’s us who bathe afterwards, it’s our beaches… We can be responsible for what happens on our territory and try to do things that are commensurate with it. “
Passers-by watch and are delighted, volunteers much less when they discover a pile of rubbish around two empty bins. “We can assume that the garbage collectors picked up everything they could and that at one point the trucks were fullsays Marie Dalbouse, from the association Les Ailes de l’Océan. Since the strike was over, we had some hope that it would be cleaned up. And there, we just did the top of the Cannebière, and… no. It’s a bad surprise!”
This pile of garbage is reported to the town hall, as will be dozens of others. “We can’t see the end of itsays Eric Akopian, from Clean My Calanques.
“Since October, tell yourself that we haven’t even finished picking up the waste from the first strike… and we’re on the third!”
Eric Akopian from Clean My Calanquesat franceinfo
“It’s tiring. People may have the right to strike but in the meantime, while it’s being discussed, while it’s being carried away, nature takes a heavy toll.deplore Eric Akopian. We do the work of the State, we tell ourselves that if we don’t do it, no one will, but it’s very tiring. And annoying.”
This collection also shows that everyone’s behavior must be changed. Éric Akopian does it in song. In a year and a half, Cbetter organized has 650,000 views online.
“The main thing about this song was to take a very well-known song, ‘Organized Band’ and make an ecological remix of it. The chorus is: no more cigarette butts, take one two, no more cigarette butts. Quite simply”explains Eric Akopian.
Clean-up operations will continue on the beaches of Marseille, the last chance to avoid the tide of waste in the Mediterranean.