• Launched by the Sauvage Méditerranée association, a jewelry and bag brand recycles waste collected during collection operations on beaches and at sea.

  • She accepts all summer, every evening at the La Ciotat market, a bag full of litter - valued at 15 euros - as a bargaining chip.

They will be all summer at the night market in La Ciotat, on the Old Port. With a special feature compared to neighboring stands: jewelry and eco-designed bags from the local brand Sauvage can be paid for with… waste collected at sea or on the beach. "We take everything, not just the plastic caps as we had launched the idea at Christmas, we don't want people to say to themselves in front of a waste, this one, I do not collect it", smiles Manu Laurin, founder of the Sauvage Méditerranée association, specializing in the recycling of marine litter.

One year after swimming 120 km between Marseille and Toulon to collect the waste he finds in his path, he imagines in 2018 a solution to "go to the end", "complete the loop".

The idea is not to be an association for collecting litter in addition, but this time to enhance it.

A workshop is open in Aix-en-Provence where the team imagines the first bracelets made from fishing nets.

The collection now includes around thirty items, including jewelry made with “polished glass, collected in particular in the Calanques.

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The equivalent of a shopping bag

In practice, a shopping bag filled with waste collected in the wild (i.e. approximately 1 kg) will entitle the holder to a 15 euros voucher on the stand, i.e. the price of a bracelet, for example. "Our brand is designed to be very participatory, so that people are actors and not just consumers", continues Manu Laurin, who always keeps in the workshop the waste collected during his trip in 2017, for example. "I had collected 1 kg of waste per kilometer swam," he breathes.

At present, the waste comes mainly from partner associations in the region, which also fight against the invasion of plastic in the Mediterranean Sea. Non-profit, the association reinvests the proceeds of sales in the purchase of equipment for the workshop. “We also donate part to our partner associations, to support fundraising actions, all of this is very circular,” continues the founder. We do not patent anything, anyone can come to the workshop to use the machines, to launch ideas. "

This year, the competitors of the Défi de Monte-Cristo will be awarded medals and trophies specially designed by the brand, always with recycled waste.

The Delta Festival also called on them.

"We treat 1.2 tonnes of waste per year, compared to an industrialist, it is not much, but it is a good start", indicates Manu Laurin, who reminds that the production of plastic continues to increase and that " 80% of the waste found at sea comes from the land.

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Marseilles

VIDEO.

Marseille: He will swim 120 km to connect Toulon by collecting the waste he meets at sea

Planet

Marseille: The city hosts the first waste collection race in Europe

  • Marseilles

  • ecology

  • La Ciotat

  • Mediterranean

  • Waste

  • Sea

  • Planet