About “clean” beaches and beach cleaning in Belgium

Clean beaches are a priority for all coastal municipalities. In Belgium, the beach cleaning happens mostly by using a beach cleaning machine. However, a mechanical beach cleaner not only removes most of the man-produced waste but unfortunately also takes away most of the organic material. The organic material in the high tide line has numerous natural functions in the coastal ecosystem, in terms of coastal defence, as feeding ground, as a biotope for pioneer plants, etc. On the other hand, manual cleaning undoubtedly has several positive effects: less waste is produced, less cost for the treat... Mehr ...