With 165.000 berths in France's ports and 900.000 registered vessels, the waters off the French coasts are crowded with leisure craft throwing their rubbish away thoughtlessly. And it's a fact that 5 boats can generate 2 kilos of waste every day, explains Barthélemy Dominici, Chairman and Chief Executive of OBELL International SA, which has manufactured floating waste containers for collecting waste from boats since 2002. Each one of these containers - a kind of buoy measuring 2.20m in diameter, 1.65m in height out of the water - can collect the refuse produced by 100 vessels. I work with district and regional authorities on the Mediterranean coastline and in the Arcachon Basin, Brittany, Spain and the Caribbean. The company is supported by the the Nicolas Hulot Foundation, the Pavillon Bleu ecolabel scheme, Cèdre (the Centre of Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution), and Mer et Littoral, adds the company's CEO. The innovative OBELL design - protected by a French international patent - is now in its fifth generation. The company's next project is to produce an OBELL equipped with a camera which can transmit data to its operator round the clock - including fill level, water temperature, wind, and water oxygenation.

The company has located its head office at Nanterre in Paris Region. The Obell is manufactured in the region and Paris Region's high international profile is crucial in supporting our international expansion, states Barthélemy Dominici, who has received support from ADEME (the French Environment and Energy Management Agency) to expand the product's national and international distribution. His next step: building OBELL's presence in Paris Region's river ports.