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

Divers have pulled all sorts of rusty rubbishout 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 Geneva” 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.

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

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.