Reportage
In Marseille, giant cleanings to raise awareness of the overflow of waste
A volunteer from Clean My Calanques collects waste on the Vieille Chapelle beach.
© Yoram Melloul / RFI
Text by: Yoram Melloul Follow
5 mins
The Clean My Calanques association has been organizing giant waste collections on the beaches of Marseille for five years.
She wants to raise awareness among the local population
through
bold communication whose objective is to make ecology accessible to as many people as possible.
Advertising
Read more
From our correspondent in Marseille,
A garbage bag in hand, Kawtar is busy between the rocks on the edge of the beach of the old chapel in Marseille.
The 27-year-old is taking part in an event planned by
Clean My Calanques
.
For five years the association has specialized in the organization of giant clean-ups organized each month on the city's beaches.
This Marseillaise no longer supports people mistreating the environment in which they live.
“
It's not uncommon to see people throwing cigarette butts out of their car window, or throwing bottles directly into the sea. Marseille is a magnificent city, it must be preserved!
»
That day, around a hundred took part in the event in a festive atmosphere.
The association has organized a petanque tournament, sports lessons or even a contest, which Laure and Eliott like: "
It makes you optimistic to see that so many people have made the trip
", explains the couple who came to help. for the first time.
Like many participants, they became aware of the association
via
social networks.
Clean My Calanque communicates extensively on the internet and in the media.
The association has more than 30,000 followers on Instagram and 10,000 on TikTok.
She got into the habit of making videos with artists or influencers.
Its members share their anger at the piles of waste that populate the edge of the beaches.
They also use humor to get their message across.
As with this parody of the music video for the hit song Organized Band, transformed into Organized Cleaner.
On YouTube, the video shot partly in the Vélodrome stadium, in the presence of the Marseille youtuber Bengous, has almost 700,000 views.
Addressing younger people
"
We want to play with Marseille chauvinism
and the attachment of the inhabitants to their city
", details Eric Akopian, the founder of Clean My Calanques.
Present on the day of the collection of the Vieille-Chapelle, the former soldier with a strong personality seeks to raise awareness among the general public.
“
With our videos, we reach the youngest who follow us a lot.
We go to schools to raise awareness.
I believe that children also educate their parents.
If they know not to throw cigarette butts on the ground, then they will take back their father or their mother when they see them doing it.
Moreover, the gathering of the day attracts a very large proportion of young people, but also families who come with their children.
In five years, the association has organized 71 collections and recovered 50 tonnes of waste
.
But there is still so much garbage.
"
It's the second time we've been on this beach and it's still just as dirty
," exasperated Éric Akopian.
Before the Covid, things were starting to change.
Then Marseille became very touristy.
There were a lot of people in the city, a lot of passage.
The metropolis, which manages waste collection, is not up to it.
She does anything.
There are no bins and they are always full.
»
Sorting of some of the waste collected during a cleaning day organized by Clean My Calanques.
© Yoram Melloul / RFI
► To read also: France: the Calanques National Park, a site to be preserved
Raising awareness against overconsumption
Events bring together even more people when the issue of waste is publicized in Marseille or when an event shocks local opinion.
Like during the big garbage collectors' strike last February.
Five hundred people had come to pick up rubbish on the beaches.
But in reality, this is not enough.
We must take the problem at the root according to Eric Akopian.
“
Much of the waste collected has not been thrown away by the sea. You can only change things
through
consumption.
We must buy less and better.
»
The observation is shared by Juliette.
A member of Clean My Calanques for more than two years, she takes care, that day, of sorting the waste collected by the volunteers.
Standing on a large tarp installed on the ground, she organizes piles.
She is responsible for “
categorizing the waste
,” she explains with a laugh.
In other words, it does the sorting.
On one side glass, paper, aluminum and some plastics, on the other the rest.
The dumpsters are already ready to be filled with several tens of kilos of waste collected on the Vieille-Chapelle beach.
But before that, the loot of the day will be photographed and posted on social networks.
“
The idea is to have shocking images to make people react
“, explains Juliette.
Showing a large pile of garbage also makes passers-by react.
► Also to listen: In the creeks, a pass against erosion
Despite the joy of the participants, it is not always easy for Juliette.
"
I'm a little disillusioned,
" she says
.
The hardest thing is to see that collection after collection there is always so much waste.
The vast majority of them do not sort.
I feel like there is no real alternative.
Citizens are not given the means to do otherwise.
»
The association wants to be accessible, but not moralizing.
“
We are not going to lecture people who are in trouble.
We are all in the same boat.
Everyone is asked to do what they can.
She hopes that these large gatherings will eventually make decision-makers react.
“
So that one day Clean My Calanques becomes useless and disappears.
»
► To read also:
How energy autarky saves the German village of Feldheim from soaring prices
Lisbon: citizen action for clean streets
What can everyday actions do in the face of the challenges of the century?
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
France
Environment
our selection