By Floriane Padoan
Posted on 03/27/2021 at 10:49 p.m.
Updated on 03/27/2021 at 10:53 p.m.
“We tried to tell people, from the moment you sort your waste, we can recycle it. But if you don’t do that, it’s screwed up ”, explains André Delhaye, sustainable development referent of the association. Challenge for the environment (Deal). More than 30 people have joined the call of the group of restaurateurs Homy Kitchens to clean up part of the right bank of the Garonne in Bordeaux.
“When we see what we have collected, it’s amazing,” says André Delhaye, still shocked by the state of areas close to shops: “The parking lot serves as a waste dump for businesses… What is terrible is that there are garbage bins right in front, and that doesn’t stop people from throwing their stuff… ”
Photo credit: Lisa Buhler
After collecting 195 kilos of waste, the participants organized workshops for sorting plastic trash, metal cans, glass, scrap metal, before taking everything to the recycling center. “But we realized that the waste was so dirty that it was all going to be incinerated. “Incineration is the worst waste disposal method, according to André Delhaye, who recalls that” anything that is not harvested goes directly into the ocean “.
As a group of takeaway street food restaurateurs, Homy Kitchens try to limit plastic by using utensils made from bamboo fiber or corn starch. If the task seems immense to them, the fact of “being all united to do this together” motivates Lucie Le Brun, from Homy Kitchens.
The latter has helped to set up actions called “Homicares”, organized by the group of restaurateurs, who “far from pushing consumption, try to make the world more pleasant through social actions”. André Delhaye believes in the strength of partnerships to make as many people as possible aware of the protection of our environment, and maintains that “an individual eco-citizen attitude makes it possible to reduce pollution by 20 to 25%”.
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