“What we are experiencing is an absolute scandal, a white tide”. It is with these words that the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu described the plastic ball pollution that has been hitting the Atlantic coast for several weeks. From Finistère to Vendée, these 4 to 5 mm granules have been stranded more particularly in Loire-Atlantique in recent days. “Complicated to pick up, fitting into ecosystems, ingested by all animals, and leaving the disarray of elected officials, associations trying to mobilize”, described the minister. During questions to the government, the minister announced that the State had lodged a complaint with the public prosecutor of Brest.
Several other complaints already filed
This weekend, in Pornic (Loire-Atlantique), a hundred volunteers carried out a cleaning operation. “It is thought to be a container which, perhaps, had been damaged some time ago, and which, with the recent storms, opened”, thus spreading the pellets along the shores, had explained Lionel Cheylus, spokesman for the NGO Surfrider foundation.
Experts from the documentation and research center were sent on site to try to improve the collection process, “but above all to determine the origin” of this pollution, said Christophe Béchu. The mayor of Pornic, Jean-Michel Brard, filed a complaint against X on Monday following this pollution, as did the mayor of Les Sables d’Olonne, Yannick Moreau, and the president of the Pays-de-la-Loire region. , Christelle Morançais.