This summer again, the region is particularly affected by cases of illegal dumping of hydrocarbons, cars, building waste, and all kinds of rubbish. The municipality is trying to put an end to this, as are the associations, with the help of the population.
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“Trash life”, a slogan that the city of Marseille cannot shake off. The fault, perhaps, is the increasing number of illegal dumps. As recently as August 20, 8,000 liters of hydrocarbons were dumped in the open air into a river, the Jarret, bordering the Bocage park north of Marseille. Illegal dumps are also numerous, such as an illegal dump, far north of Marseille, in Estaque, in the hills of Nerthe.
The view of the harbor of Marseille is breathtaking, but below, “The apotheosis is here : we are faced with approximately 300 to 400 stripped-down vehicles”points out Jean-Yves Sayag, elected to the Aix-Marseille metropolis, in charge of illegal dumping. He invites you to put on sneakers to “go down to about 80 meters”. On the way, the pieces of glass crack underfoot and after a fall and a few cuts, it’s the arrival at the bottom.
“These are stolen vehicles, continues Jean-Yves Sayag. They take everything there is to take and then they cut them up and throw them here. They are bodybuilders who are very well organized and who traffic with the Maghreb, since we have the port not very far away. They take the parts inside and everything else, so that we cannot identify them, they come and throw them here.”
Besides car wrecks, you can find everything, even “a weapon”but especially construction waste: “It’s full of asbestos, we can see it”points out the elected official. Entrepreneurs prefer to dispose of this waste in the open air rather than in a dump, Jean-Yves Sayag explains their reasons: “They don’t want to do it because they are still identified. We know that company X threw away, for example, 112 per year tons of waste, while they only declare 12 to the tax authorities. The difference would have to be explained and, since they would not be able to do it, it is much easier to go through small labor, for a small fee.”
A traffic that the France Nature Environnement association in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and its director Nathalie Chaudon are fighting against: “We realize that there is a real waste mafia along the entire coastline, across the entire region. We sometimes file complaints for large dumps and when we find the perpetrator, we become a civil party.” She adds that these illegal dumps have serious environmental consequences: “These are often agricultural areas so they also deteriorate the soil at the agronomic level.”
“This also has consequences for agricultural and natural land.”
Nathalie Chaudon, president of France Nature Environnement PACAfranceinfo
To combat this pollution, France Nature Environnement has launched the “Sentinels of Nature” application so that individuals can geolocate these illegal dumps. Since 2020, on this application, France Nature Environnement PACA has received 460 reports of illegal dumps, or around ten reports every month.