Every minute 17 tons of plastic waste are added to the surface of the oceans according to the association The Sea Cleaners, founded by Yvan Bourgnon. Now in his fifties, the sailor has left the world of offshore racing to switch to the defense of the environment**.** His flagship project, which he will present at “Natura Trouville” this Saturday, October 22, is a one-of-a-kind factory ship whose mission will be to collect, process and recover plastic macro-waste. Interview with Yvan Bourgnon, guest France Bleu Normandie this Friday.
France Blue: You started sailing with your parents when you were 8 years old. Have you observed the degradation of the seas over the decades?
Yvan Bourgnon: Yes, I had the chance to sail around the world with my parents in a sailboat from the age of eight to twelve. It was the early 80s and the oceans were perfectly clean. And then, more recently, in 2014, while doing the same circumnavigation of the world on a small sport catamaran, I had the misfortune to sail among the plastics, on the surface of the water, along the Indonesian coasts, from Sri Lanka and the Maldives. And that’s when I became aware of this pollution, of the terrible aggravation of these plastics in the water!
France Blue: You put forward this figure of 17 tons of plastic waste every minute at sea!
Yvan Bourgnon: Yes and unfortunately it will get worse. We will probably have three times more plastic in the ocean in 2060 and certainly ten times more in 2100. Plastic consumption is exploding and therefore, inevitably, pollution with it.
France Blue: The consequences are terrible for the ecosystem obviously….
Yvan Bourgnon: We already have 1.5 million marine animals dying every year because of these plastics. Just for them, it’s already enough to bend down and pick up! This is also true for humans who swallow the equivalent of a plastic bank card every week. It is necessary to take action.
Objective: launch in 2025
France Blue: And you had the idea of a very special boat, currently under construction, which could suck up these plastics?
Yvan Bourgnon: That’s the idea behind creating The Sea Cleaners to try to do something curative, to recover plastics from the surface of the water. This boat, the Manta, will be able to collect 5,000 to 10,000 tonnes of plastic per year, mostly in the mouths of rivers. A super efficient boat that will be launched in 2025. In the meantime, we have already started launching small boats that are nine meters long. The first has already left for Bali to do his first action.
France Blue: You mention a launch in 2025. Is the financing closed?
Yvan Bourgnon: It is half-funded and for the moment it is 10,000 donors, 70 French companies, but we still have a little way to go. And so we are calling on all companies and all donors to help us in this adventure, to write this beautiful page on the depollution of the oceans.
Raising awareness also for those who throw plastic away – Yvan BOURGNON
France Blue: This Saturday you will be in Trouville to present your project and also to address the general public. Is there also a part of raising awareness to be done for everyone?
Yvan Bourgnon: Yes, there’s no point actually going to do some curative and cleaning up if you don’t change the behavior of users. So it is important to go and see as many people as possible in France to make them aware of the fact of eliminating plastic from their everyday consumption, of better managing their waste and of not throwing anything away often in nature. . This action in Trouville is super important, it will allow us to reach even more people and people who are very close to the sea.
Natura Trouville (complete program
) this Saturday, October 22 from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.