Do Ile-de-France residents have so little civic sense that they throw their rubbish directly into the Seine, taking the river for a trash can?
According to the Regional Waste Observatory in Île-de-France (Ordif), 2% of plastic waste from the inhabitants of the region is lost in nature, i.e. 17,000 tonnes.
Up to a third (between 2,200 and 5,900 tonnes) would end up in the river, according to MacroPlast, a study carried out by the Water, Environment and Urban Systems Laboratory (Leesu).
While bulky items, cars and motorcycles are no longer commonplace on the banks, small objects are legion.
And apart from the unauthorized dumping of waste from the building, most of it would not be thrown directly into the river.
"They would rather come from the rainwater network", estimates Romain Tramoy, who is conducting research until the end of the year, as part of the Plastoc project, to quantify and analyze the origin of plastic waste transiting in the Seine. .
"One in four French people throw their waste out of their car window"
To achieve this, it relies on the work of Pollustock, a company that has developed tailor-made nets that it places at the outlets of outlets, where rainwater is discharged into the Seine after having run off and washed out the streets and highways.
“According to an Ipsos survey, one in four French people throw their waste out of their car window,” recalls Romain Tramoy.
So after the heavy rains, the waters run off and take away everything that lies around.
The roads are clean, but the rivers…”
At the exit, the nets, real waste traps, retain everything over 5 cm: wipes, anti-Covid masks, cans, bottles, packets of crisps, lighters… “Once the net is filled with the bulkiest objects , the smallest can be retained by the big ones”, explains Stéphane Asikian, president and founder of Pollustock.
Even cigarette butts.
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The first, and largest, was installed in the Val-d'Oise, in Goussainville.
Recorded every two months, it makes it possible to extract 1 ton of waste each time!
Others are positioned in the Val-de-Marne, in Champigny, Joinville, Maisons-Alfort and Le Perreux, before the arrival of runoff water in the Marne.
"It's a great monitoring tool for city waste and a tool for monitoring the impact of public policies," says Romain Tramoy.
For example, there are no more plastic cups.
But there are cardboard, covered with a polymer film to make it waterproof.
And it's counterproductive, because we can never recycle it.
Another noteworthy development: “The plastic cotton swab is over!
Instead, we find them in cardboard but they degrade much faster.
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