Somebody has moved in part two

We looked at each other for a moment or two, the tall guy and the round guy seemed to be appraising me.  We sat there in silence for about 10 seconds.

If you forgot where we were you can read the first part here :

http://hammeranddirt.blogspot.ch/2015/07/somebody-has-moved-in-20-july-2015.html

« Bon, je dois faire mes comptes » I announced and turned my back to them, I figured they needed a facefull of this anyway :

We ended up with an impressive amount of trash :

LES DÉCHETS QUANTIFIER AVEC LES FICHE BILAN DES INITIATIVES OCÉANES 2015

235 = Mégots de cigarette

 31 = Bouchons de bouteille plastique

 10 = Emballages alimentaire (barquette, sandwich, pot de yaourt, fast food)

26 = Sacs plastique et fragment de sacs plastique

16 = Papier de chips, de barres chocolatées, de bonbons (sucreries)

  6 = Déchets médicaux : Flacon/tubes/emballages médicaments

2 = Déchets sanitaires/hygiènes : Cotons tiges =63

  1= Déchets sanitaires/hygiènes : Tampons et applicateurs

60 = Morceaux de polystyrène entre 2,5 et 50 cm

180 = Morceaux de plastique entre 2,5 et 50 cm

  1= Pailles/touillettes

  1 = Déchets liés à la pêche : Lignes de pêche/hameçon

2= Jouets     2= Briquets  2 =Ballons de baudruches Sandales/chaussures Déchets liés à la conchyliculture* (poche, casier, jupette etc.)

VERRE   2 = Bouteilles en verre,  5 = Morceaux de verre

METAL  1= Canettes 5 = Morceaux de fer, ferraille

AUTRE 1 = stylo permanence, syringe

 34 = Médias filtrants et cartouche de chasse

Once it was all laid out the tall guy and the round guy came over and inspected our findings.  The tall guy took some pictures and said something about sending the pictures to his friends in Canada.

I ignored his comments, we packed up and moved on.

The beaches on the the Baye de Montreux are not official beaches according to the « Commission internationale pour la protection des eaux du Léman », www.cipel.org , therefore they do not appear on the official map http://www.cipel.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/cipel_carte_plages_11-12.pdf .  We are making the assumption that they are not monitored by any « official agency » because we have received no comments from the commune de Montreux and only one written response from the ASL ( http://www.asleman.org/fr/ ).

The lakefront in Montreux is a very busy place and the beaches that we clean are right at the epicenter of commercial activity.  There is a shopping center about 50 meters away and numerous restaurants and hotels across the pedestrian walkway.

The beaches are frequented by a variety of people, locals and tourists alike.  Our encounter with the tall man was unusual in context but at that time we considered it an isolated incident and we didn’t think we would ever see the guy again.

On June 30, 2015  we received this email :

« Bonjour Monsieur Erismann,

  

Pour le journal Zuriquois Tages-Anzeiger je voudrait bien écrire  sur votre projet plages propres. La prochaine semaine je serrai à montreux, donc on pourrait se voir. Mardi ou mercredi.

Si vous voulez vous pouvez aussi me téléphoner pour organiser le meeting.

Merci et salutation

Yann Cherix »

One of Switzerland biggest newspapers wanted an interview with us!  Very cool.  So we organized the meeting for July 7, 2015 at 13:30.

We also notified the local authorities and the direction of the Jazz Festival; we wanted everybody to be seen in the best possible light. (We believe the trash on the beach is a collective problem)

We met Yann at the statue of Freddie Mercury and walked down towards the beach.  We looked over the railing and who do you think we saw? That’s right the tall guy, he had even picked up trash.

Part three coming soon.