By RFIPalled on 22-09-2019Modified on 22-09-2019 at 04:35

Thousands of volunteers launched Saturday, September 21, in a waste hunt in 163 countries for World Clean-Up Day, the day after a climate event that brought together more than four million young people around the world. organizers. Reports in two points far apart from one another: Madagascar and Quebec.

■ In Madagascar, a clear need for public awareness

More than 25 cities throughout the country, and especially the beaches, have been cleaned. In the capital Antananarivo, residents have collected garbage in many neighborhoods. The challenge: to generate awareness of the proliferation of litter. A problem to which is added the difficult waste management in the Big Island.

At 9:30, they are already fifty, most young people, to collect garbage that accumulated along the marsh Masay, in the center of Antananarivo. A canvas bag in her hands, Miranta is busy. " There are plastic bottles, layers, fabrics, plastics dominate, " she says.

Every passerby around is invited to join the cleaning. " The Earth right now is really bad and it's really alarming. So, it's really important to participate in this kind of event. First of all, because it makes people aware, who are wondering: "who are these young people who clean the streets? We should do the same". And it's good to see that kind of impact, "says Vaniela, 27.

Wild litter littering the roads due to the lack of public garbage in the city. "We noticed that there was no place or put our garbage. So put in the bag or throw? Throwing away is easier, "regrets Sandra Ratsimbazafy is President Let's Do It Madagascar, in charge of organizing this initiative.

An initiative to learn not to throw waste in the nature but also to recycle hopes Sandra

" The big worry is that we do not have the habit of sorting yet. When we do cleaning, usually everyone puts in the same bin all the garbage. So today, we try to put aside household waste, plastics or bags. It's a start to making others feel the same. "

Many wastes will have a second life: plastics will be used to make kits and bags.

■ How Mission 100 tons wants to purge waterways

In Montreal, citizens armed with gloves and telescopic forceps tracked cigarette butts, plastic bottles, or even abandoned car tires and car batteries along roadside or on the banks of watercourses.

Thanks to the inspiration of his mother who lives in Mexico, Chris Martinez practices the garbage collection with his little girl Sophie. " I went to the park near my home, I saw a lot of garbage, I told myself that I did not want that for my daughter. I wish children had a better world. "

With other volunteers, the young woman picked up a lot of cigarette butts near a bus stop this Saturday. For a year now, Jimmy Vigneux and a marine scientist have been involved in getting 100 tonnes of waste from rivers: plastic, scrap metal, tires. This mission, they do it in Quebec, but also abroad. " When I went to Indonesia last year, when I see after a rain that there are tons of rubbish on the beaches because all the rubbish of the city has gathered at the edge of the sea ... Gold all the oceans are connected. So we are going to do some major cleanups all over Quebec. If there is none in other countries, we will still achieve the same result. So we are trying to expand our power of action, starting from the fact that we are a rich country, to support local initiatives in countries where there is no financial capacity as there can be here. "

Mission 100 tons therefore wants to develop new solidarities to clean watercourses everywhere on the planet.

    On the same subject

    The march for the climate in Paris enamelled with violence

    Climate: Youth keeps up the pressure with a special summit at the UN

    Scientists warn about bird mortality and permafrost

    Amazon boss promises carbon neutrality by 2040

    comments