Mechanical cleaning

Since 1991, on the initiative of the Conseil Général (now Départemental) des Landes, the Landes seacoast clean-up is organized on a coast-wide scale.

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Differentiated cleaning operation of the Landes coastline

The 106 km of Landes coastline is divided into different types of zones, based on the various issues related to visitor numbers, environmental sensitivity, erosion, and access conditions. 

Differentiated coastal cleaning is an integrated operation involving a range of services including:

  • mechanical or manual cleaning of the foreshore
  • collecting and transporting waste
  • sorting, processing, and recycling.

Key figures

  • 106km

    of coastline cleaned

  • 1,8

    million euros annual operating cost

  • 12000m3

    of waste collected annually

  • 100%

    of recycled waste

  • 4150

    of work in reintegration

  • 6

    emplois à l’année pour les opérations mécaniques

Mechanical cleaning

Mechanical cleaning involves the collection of all types of common waste dumped on the foreshore (plastic, glass, fishing waste, etc.), using dedicated techniques such as screening or mechanized raking. This is recommended for the entire Landes coastline, with the exception of areas with a high environmental impact or subject to erosion. Intervention frequencies and levels of finish are defined according to the number of tourists in each work zone. In this way, while this type of cleaning is more thorough in supervised bathing areas, it tends to be less so in intermediate zones. Throughout the year, the Landes coastline is cleaned during the day in winter and at night in summer.

In order to temporarily store waste collected from the foreshore, a system of drop-off areas has been set up all along the coast (excluding the military sector). There is a total of 18 such areas, each housing two storage bins, one for wood and the other for general waste. These areas are specifically dedicated to waste collected on the foreshore and are not intended for household waste.

Mechanical cleaning is limited to the foreshore by a 5-meter-wide protective strip between the foot of the dune and the cleaning limit in the case of an eroding dune profile, and the limit of the lowest vegetation in the case of an accretionary dune profile.

Although wood is a major component of the input washed up on the foreshore, it is not considered to be waste. Outside supervised bathing areas, larger pieces of wood are mechanically deposited at the foot of the dune. This encourages the re-silting of the dune and the creation of habitats for the various species that colonize the dune ecosystem.

In order to reduce the amount of sand exported during mechanical operations, all our machines are subject to technical modifications designed to minimize this export as much as possible. The sand collected and stored on the sorting platform undergoes an analysis before being redirected to the foreshore.

The Aquitaine coastline regularly gets strandings of animal corpses of various kinds: marine mammals (dolphins, pilot whales, whales, sperm whales, etc.), sharks, turtles, sea birds, domestic or farm animals (dogs, cows, sheep, etc.), wild animals (deer, wild boar, etc.). All animals are removed from the foreshore by the service provider in charge of mechanical cleaning, and deposited at the disposal areas, pending handling by a correspondent of the Réseau National d’Echouages (RNE) in the case of marine animals, and then by the rendering service. A stranding procedure has been established to deal with all stranded animals.

Discovery of a stranded animal