France/Sur cette plage du sud de la France, les déchets sont ramées par... des dromadaires!

The town of Frontignan (Hérault, France) has decided to repeat a most unusual waste collection operation. Every second Saturday during the summer, two dromedaries meet holidaymakers on the beach to collect their garbage. The aim is to raise awareness of waste sorting from an early age.

Dromedaries to encourage waste collection. As in 2023, two camelids will roam the beaches of Frontignan (Hérault) in search of paper and other garbage: "The aim is to encourage people to take their garbage home with them, or to throw it away at the end of the beach towards the containers for sorting. Dromedaries attract people; they act as mediators between humans and nature", explains Coralie Le Meur, dromedary breeder and co-founder of the Dromasud camel farm, toAgence France-Presse(AFP).

For the second year running, every second Saturday during the summer vacations, Frontignan town council has chosen to awaken tourists to the need to respect their environment, by calling on this local company and its camelids." It was a crazy experience at first. Getting dromedaries to walk on the beach and collect garbage. The aim is to raise children's awareness from an early age and get them to sort their garbage," explains Jean-Louis Molto, Frontignan town council member responsible for port and seaside areas.

"Champion of savings

"We used to have garbage cans on the beach," adds Molto. "But once they were full, people would leave their bags of garbage next to them. The gulls would come and smash them, and the wind would blow them all back into the sea. So we felt it was important to relocate these garbage cans (on the seafront road) and add selective sorting to them."

"The dromedary is the champion of resource savings," asserts Cécile Le Meur, 55, co-founder of the Dromasud farm with her daughter Coralie." It's an animal that doesn't drink much, is highly adapted to the heat, knows how to walk perfectly in the sand, and therefore lends itself almost naturally to picking up garbage on the beach".

14 km of walking

As well as being useful, the initiative is also appealing. On Saturday July 13, 2024, Touareg, a 16-year-old male dromedary, and Lili, a four-year-old female, aroused the curiosity of holidaymakers, who were encouraged to dispose of their garbage in the bags stamped with the town's logo and placed on the animals' flanks. Throughout their 14 km round trip, the two dromedaries attracted the attention of families: "I've never seen one before!" exclaimed one little girl. " He doesn't smell good," admitted another young vacationer.

"It's amazing," commented a man in his sixties. He added: "I figure it might motivate people to be careful, motivate them to do what's necessary to keep a beach clean."

Once their time on the beach was over, Lili and Touareg headed for one of the parallel streets, where the sorting garbage cans are located. Their bags were emptied and their contents distributed into the corresponding containers. The exact number of kilos of garbage collected is currently being checked by the town hall.

Source: www.msn.com/