Two new connected, solar-powered and compactor containers have just been installed at the entrance to Mont-Saint-Michel (Manche) to replace part of the city bins which no longer made it possible to absorb waste from the 2, 4 million tourists who visit the site each year.
Greasy paper from sandwiches, napkins, cans and other rubbish overflowed the bins every day, strewing the cobbled streets or the gardens that make the place so charming.
It must be said that the Mont generates no less than 370 tonnes of waste per year, or one tonne per day!
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“And the health crisis has not helped, by promoting take-away sales and its additional waste.
But all of this should now be just a bad memory,” explains the mayor, Jacques Bono.
A sorting island that costs 10,000 euros
The Mont has in fact set itself the objective of “zero waste”, by encouraging more and more visitors to leave with their waste.
While waiting to achieve this, elected officials have decided to replace part of the city baskets with a sorting island installed just at the entrance to Mont-Saint-Michel.
These are "intelligent" bins which, in addition to compacting the waste, alert the maintenance workers from a certain level of filling.
They are kept closed so as not to attract the many gulls in the bay, but open very easily with the help of a pedal.
The connected containers installed at Mont Saint-Michel, to achieve the zero waste objective, notify agents when they are 75% full. Mont-Saint-Michel urban community
This system, which facilitates sorting, will have cost 10,000 euros but has already made it possible to remove around thirty old bins.
If the test is conclusive, two other islands could be installed by the fall, and all the baskets of the Mount removed.
“Hoping that, at the same time, everyone will also produce less and less waste,” concludes the mayor.
