
A hundred people gathered on a beach in Pornic on France's north western coast (Loire-Atlantique) on Saturday to denounce the pollution of plastic micro-beads washed up there and on other beaches in recent weeks. Several elected officials have filed a legal complaint against what they describe as an "environmental nightmare".
"It is thought that a shipping container that may have been damaged some time ago, and which, with the recent storms, opened up, spreading the pellets along the shores," Lionel Cheylus, spokesperson for the Surfrider foundation told French news agency AFP.