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Mussel-covered junk and mortar shell pulled out of Lake Geneva

A bicycle covered in mussels
Meal on wheels: a mussel-covered bicycle pulled from Lake Geneva at Vevey Keystone

Divers have pulled all sorts of rusty rubbish out of Lake Geneva as part of a clean-up operation. 

“The mortar shell was found early this afternoon by a diver,” said a spokesman for canton Vaud police on Saturday. “Demining experts arrived and ascertained that it didn’t have a detonator.” The beach and road were closed for about an hour. 

Apart from that surprise, the ninth “Clean Lake GenevaExternal link” weekend has so far turned up mostly scrap metal like shopping trolleys, chains, tyres and plastic. “The amount of plastic and cigarette butts is quite outrageous,” said project leader Adrien Bonny. 

Shopping trolleys and a bicycle
More salvaged forms of transport Keystone

Bonny said a lot of the plastic debris comprised drinking straws, bottle tops and yoghurt lids. 

Plastic in a bucket
A depressing haul Keystone

The clean-up takes place every two years and this year involved 310 divers and 840 volunteers on land. On average between ten and 15 tonnes of rubbish are collected, which are then sorted, recorded and recycled where possible.

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SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR