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What are these "siren's tears" that pollute part of the Atlantic coast?

2023-01-16T18:16:05.189Z


For several weeks, small plastic balls have been stranded on the beaches of Finistère, Loire-Atlantique or Vendée. Hardly visible, this pollution is harmful to biodiversity. Mayors have already filed a complaint against X.


Le Figaro Nantes

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  • Follow all the news of the city of Nantes

Storm Gérard, which swept across the northwestern facade of France overnight from Sunday to Monday, somewhat erased the traces.

“Pollution cannot be seen at first glance.

The plastic balls are now mixed with the sand and the sea line,”

Jean-François Grandsart, head of the Surfrider Foundation Europe branch in Loire-Atlantique

, described this Monday to

Le Figaro .

Friday, the landscape of the Source and Noëveillard beaches in Pornic was very different when he walked there:

“It was very impressive.

It was as if a large box of Tic-Tac had overturned on the sand.

Faced with this sad observation, he felt

“disgusted”

and

“helpless”

.

The reason ?

Picking up such small objects is

almost impossible

“titanic work” .

“I've tried using a dustpan with some sort of sieve but it's unmanageable.

Either way, that would be ridiculous.

It would be a drop in the bucket compared to the overall quantity,”

he laments.

A complexity confirmed by Jean-Michel Brard, the mayor of Pornic:

“It's not a white tide.

It is a delicate pollution because the balls which are two millimeters fly away with the wind or sink into the sand.

We are unable to pick them up

.

Saying

he was "revolted"

by the situation,

"We do not know the origin, nor the volume, nor the consequences of this pollution"

, he indicates.

In his town, the phenomenon began on Friday.

It would also have been spotted, on a smaller scale, in other nearby localities such as Bernerie-en-Retz or Moutiers-en-Retz.

The fall of a container in the ocean?

Last week, these industrial plastic pellets (GPI) littered the beach of Les Granges in Les Sables-d'Olonne (Vendée).

At the end of December, a similar situation had been noted on the beaches of Finistère.

Since then, these plastic microbeads have become almost invisible.

“It's an insidious pollution that mixes with the elements.

It defiles the coast without being seen”

, laments Yannick Moreau, the mayor of the Vendée seaside resort.

Faced with pollution that his town had

“not yet experienced”

, he did not hesitate to file a complaint against X:

“It is a matter of principle.

I do it each time that a fault deserves a judicial expertise and a possible condemnation.

The ocean is not a lawless zone

.

Read also Offshore wind turbines: wind of discord in Loire-Atlantique over the distribution of subsidies

If the exact origin of this GPI pollution is undetermined, a theory has already surfaced: the fall of a container in the ocean during transport.

In this hypothesis,

"perhaps we could trace the origin of the ship if only one transported these materials to the Bay of Biscay not long ago"

, hopes the city councilor.

Shipowners and charterers must face up to their responsibilities.

We must not let ourselves be done and be respected, ”

he continues.

As president of the National Association of Coastal Elected Officials (ANEL), he urges his colleagues to file a complaint each time they see pollution of this type.

Maritime transport needs to be made more secure

Jean-Michel Brard, Mayor of Pornic in Loire-Atlantique

This is what Jean-Michel Brard plans to do this Monday evening.

“This makes it possible to protect the municipality and to alert the legislator

,” he explains.

Beyond the

“unacceptable”

finding , he wants things to move:

“We need to make maritime transport more secure.

We are able to trace the origin of a meat so why would it be impossible to do it for the boats?

This pollution affects fish, shellfish, oysters: behind it is our health that is affected.

“Massive” and “avoidable” pollution

If the pollution caused by GPI is

"little visible"

, it is

"massive",

warns Lucie Padovani, in charge of advocacy for aquatic litter at Surfrider Foundation Europe:

"This represents 150,000 tonnes per year on the scale of the European Union."

As for the name of "siren's tears" used to qualify the GPI, it refutes it.

“It makes the thing too beautiful while it remains microplastic pollution which has an impact on biodiversity and the food chain”

, she believes.

Lucie Padovani wants proof of this in the fact that GPIs have already been found in the stomachs of turtles or birds.

What are GPIs?

Industrial plastic granules (IPG) are small balls that serve as a basic material for plastics processing.

"

They are used at the beginning of the life cycle of plastic to make many objects

", deciphers Lucie Padovani.

According to this specialist in the subject, GPI pollution is

"diffuse"

because it is transported by the water cycle and can therefore

ultimately

"

end up on our plates"

.

Above all, it would be

“avoidable”

with the establishment of

“good practices”

.

However, manufacturers still need to be ready to make an effort in this area.

For Lucie Padovani, this is where the shoe pinches:

“Each time there is a regulatory project, plastics manufacturers make voluntary commitments that they do not respect or that have objectives that are not ambitious enough. »

His association is therefore campaigning for better transparency and better control over GPIs.

In this, she points to the recent

“very positive signal sent by France”

.

Read also Wind turbines at sea off Saint-Nazaire: navigation authorized but strictly supervised

On January 1, 2022, a decree was issued by the Ministry of Ecological Transition to require GPI production, handling and transport sites to implement measures to prevent losses and discharges into the environment.

At the same time, an audit of these measures for each site concerned was to be submitted no later than January 1, 2023. Lucie Padovani would like this model to be deployed on a European scale so that

"all players in the plastic value chain be subject to binding measures

.

If such a project were to be validated,

“controls would have to be put in place by an external body”.

Objective: to avoid any drift so that the GPI stop running aground on the beaches of the Atlantic coast and more generally of the world.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2023-01-16

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