The third edition of the ‘Clean Up the South’ environmental initiative took place on the weekend, with around 200 volunteers gathering at Nice’s Promenade des Anglais. The event formed part of a widespread regional campaign addressing waste pollution across the south of France. 

At the Nice location, participants gathered at Opera Plage at 10am, where organisers provided them with rubbish bags and protective gloves. Students from Lycée Professionnel Les Palmiers joined families and individuals in the collective effort to remove litter and cigarette butts from the beach area. 

The Nice gathering represented just one of numerous collection points established throughout the southern region as part of the broader ‘Clean Up the South’ campaign. Last year’s regional effort delivered impressive results, with over 85 tonnes of waste collected from more than 300 collection points throughout the south. 

“I took part in the clean up with friends from high school. It didn’t take us very long and frankly it’s super satisfying to see the garbage bags fill up,’’ Enzo, a high school student, told Monaco Life. “There was a good atmosphere and, in the end, we were able to throw away or recycle almost a ton of waste. I’ll be there again next year, although I hope people will stop throwing everything into nature!’’. 

‘Clean Up the South’ forms a component of the region’s ‘Zero plastic waste in storage by 2030’ programme—which has already tripled the amount of plastic collected between 2017 and 2024.

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Photo credit: Kyriaki Topalidou, Monaco Life