Every Sunday morning, between 10 and 11 a.m., about thirty volunteers meet on the Opera Beach in Nice. Armed with gloves and bags, they collect the waste that pollutes the beach in large quantities. In one hour, the group collects an average of 10,000 cigarette butts. A figure that sums up the scale of the work carried out since 2018 by the Nice Plogging collective.
The word “plogging” comes from a Swedish idea, a contraction of jogging and plocka upp (“to pick up”). The idea is thus to run while collecting waste found along the way.
Adopted in Nice from 2018 onwards, the findings are striking: “ We realized that there was a lot of waste “, says Mathieu Perino, one of the founders. Faced with an influx of participants of all ages, running gives way to walking, which is more accessible. “ Now, everyone goes at their own pace”, he sums up.
The collective has opted for short sessions, one hour maximum, after which they meet to take stock. Thus, about ten appointments per week are scheduled, in a dozen Nice neighborhoods (beaches, Paillon, one of the most polluted). No registration is required, equipment is provided.
The WhatsApp group brings together nearly 1,000 people, with a core of around a hundred regular volunteers, from all backgrounds. “ Everyone has their own reason for doing it”, notes Mathieu Perino.
Whether it’s a desire for clean streets or climate urgency, the collective wants to be welcoming to everyone.
Figures that are worrying
Cigarette butts, plastic bottles, cans, glass: “we remove almost a ton of waste that doesn’t end up in the Mediterranean each week “, says Mathieu Perino. During a single session at Paillon, volunteers once counted about a thousand glass bottles in an hour and a half.
A volume that increases further in summer, driven by what the collective calls “nomadic consumption”: single-use cups and bottles consumed while on the move, even though plastic cups have been banned since the AGEC law of 2020. “ In summer, we find twice as much waste “, notes Mathieu Perino, who sees a broader issue: “ That’s why the overcrowding of the city during certain periods is not good. “
Seeking an impact
Beyond the immediate gesture, the collective claims an alert role. “ We are really field actors, insists Mathieu Perino. We observe absurdities and we are legitimate to report them. “ The collective notably encourages the return of true “deposit schemes”, those of reuse, with “ an incentive that is still motivating, not one cent as they do in France, but 10 to 15 cents per bottle. “
Received several times by the deputy mayors responsible for cleanliness and environment in the city of Nice, the volunteers say they find a rather benevolent ear, but demand consistency: “ It’s not enough to tell citizens to stop throwing away their waste and to pick it up, stresses Mathieu Perino. We also need to ensure that we don’t have upstream policies that are completely absurd from an environmental perspective. “
The collective also maintains regular links with other local organizations. “ We are on very good terms with Surfrider, with Paddle Cleaners in Antibes, with Collective Citizens 06 which fights against airport expansion and overtourism, with local associations. “
A volunteer’s perspective
Settled in Nice for a year and a half, Marie joined Nice Plogging while looking for an association committed to ecology. She doesn’t say she acts out of anger, but “ out of hope, which comes notably through education. “
During collections, she makes sure to pass in front of children to set an example by betting on their tendency to imitate what they observe.
Beyond the ecological gesture, it’s the “social bond” that she remembers. By regularly returning to the same appointments, she has built relationships with regulars of the place, such as a fisherman she meets week after week on Magnan beach.
Social bonds woven through actions that give hope for a healthier future.
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