Every year, people find their way to the beach: to enjoy the sun, to have a good walk, ... Coastal communities need those people, and try to give them a clean beach, but what is the definition of clean? If you ask people what a clean beach is, you get most of the time 2 answers: some say it is a beach without human rubbish, like metals, plastics, paper, cardboard,... but other say it's clean when there remains nothing but sand, so this includes the removal of all natural deposits, like algae, shells, shields of crabs,...
Unlike those people who want beaches with only sand, a clean beach can contain all sorts of natural deposits. These deposits at the high tide mark are very interesting and useful for humans and animals: you can use materials to make some nice creations, or you can learn which species appear in our seas, and animals like those deposits because they are able to find a lot of food or nesting materials at the coastline.
In 2004, the Coordination Centre for Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) and the coastal communities started a spring cleaning of the beach, they called ‘Lenteprikkel’. This occured every year at the same moment along the Belgian coast. Pictures of this event can be found in the photogallery.With this project, The ICZM wanted to make the people who go to the beach aware that the real rubbish only gets cleaned up by doing it manually. In this way alga, shells and other natural deposits at the coast stay on the beach which makes it more a natural environment and facilitates the formation of dunes, and evades erosion.
As from 2009, the Coordination Centre for ICZM and the coastal communities will not be cleaning the beach on the same date. Coastal communities, schools and clubs will plan this in their own activities during spring.
More detailed information about the rubbish and reports of the previous years can be found on the website of the Lenteprikkel (only available in dutch)