Perhaps you have seen small steel cages blooming along the roads of the Hérault. At the exit of the nozzles, the department has set up these mesh boxes, which let the water through, but trap the waste, to prevent it from ending up in nature. Many of the packaging or plastic bottles that float in the Mediterranean are just rubbish thrown on dry land, washed away by rainwater.
“At the edge of the roads, waste is a real poison, points out Philippe Vidal (PS), vice-president of the Hérault department, delegate for regional planning. The water brings the rubbish back into the ditches, then from the ditches into the rivers, then from the rivers into the sea.” These cages are regularly emptied by the agents. And unfortunately, they are often full of junk. “We find a lot of them,” laments the elected official.
“Teaching virtues”
The little extra is that this device “has educational virtues”. Because seeing these traps, crowded with plastic bottles, can, perhaps, change certain behaviors, hopes Philippe Vidal. Note, these small cages are not the result of a major industry, but the common sense of the agents of the department. It’s a team that pampers the roads of the Hérault that had this idea.
“We forget that the simplest innovations, those that come from the agents themselves, which they sometimes put in place without telling us, are sometimes extremely effective”, rejoices the elected official in charge of the territory Development. Five waste traps have already been installed along several roads in the Hérault. Before three other cages join them soon.