The recovery and recycling of green algae is a matter of debate in Brittany

It's that time of year: it's getting warmer, and green algae is accumulating on some coasts. How can we combat this invasive and, above all, dangerous algae? Some want to promote it, but it's far from certain.

The idea came from two MPs who want to use this algae, which decomposes on beaches—20,000 to 50,000 tons per year. Mickaël Cosson is the former mayor of the Breton commune of Hillion, a town that has had to close its beaches several times due to the toxic gas produced by this algae.

This former mayor wants companies, or even fishermen and their boats, to collect the seaweed before it reaches the beaches. This is already the case for Eranova, a company based in the south of France. Last year, it transformed 200 tons of green algae into granules to replace plastic.

At the end of the chain, garbage bags and perfume bottles can be made from this green algae. Except that the idea doesn't really appeal to environmental groups. For them, promoting green algae is an attempt to repair the damage rather than directly addressing the problem at its source: in this case, intensive agriculture, which is the main culprit behind the proliferation of this algae.

In fact, Jean-Yves Piriou, president of the France Nature Environnement association in Brittany, explains that recovery may only concern a small portion of the green algae. The rest would therefore continue to wash up on the coast. And in 80% of cases, in areas where collection is impossible due to mud or rocks.