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Every year, the town of Les Sables d’Olonne, in Vendée, organizes a day to raise awareness of plastic pollution on the beaches and to clean up. Equipped with gloves and bags, a hundred people volunteered.
Like explorers, they braved the mist and the cold in search of rubbish washed up on the beaches of Les Sables d’Olonne (Vendée). Their number one enemy is plastic. “It’s full of little marbles actually, and it’s hard to catch“, comments a volunteer. According to environmental associations, in Europe each year, 160,000 of these plastics end up in the oceans, a real scourge.
A horse as mediator
Plastics are not always recyclable and very difficult to collect. Vincent and his faithful companion, César, a horse, provide logistical support. “The horse is very mediating in fact, it leads to pay attention to life, that’s what we should always talk about”, thinks Vincent Pipaud, responsible for collecting. The beach is a Natura 2000 area. Between mid-March and mid-June, it is necessary to preserve the species in the nesting period.