After WW1 ended, who cleaned up the mess?

Question

Live ordnance, shells, mines, barbed wire, trenches, rifles etc.

Answer 1

At the end of World War 1 it was up to each country to clean up their own mess. This is one reason we had the marshall plan after world war 2.

One reason the seeds of WW2 were left in Germany

Answer 2

The French are still dealing with "The Red Zone."

Answer 3

Probably losers forced to do that.

Answer 4

Barbed wire, rifles, and trenches were probably cleaned up by the land owner or the local people.  If a farmer's going to plow, he's got to be able to get equipment or a team of oxen through.  He can't wait for someone from the government to come take care of it for him.  Mines, shells, and ordnance probably got handled much the same way as they were found, assuming that they didn't blow up when found.  

Germany still is finding unexploded bombs now, 60 years after WW2 ended.  There are teams that travel around to construction sites to routinely deal with these.  This is part of the reason that many countries have bans on land mines.  They tend to do more damage after the conflict has ended.

Answer 5

The area where the trenches are turn up 10,000 shells a year. Some are still live. the people living in the area have a special number to call and it brings out an army bomb squad which examines the shell and decides if it is dangerous in which case it is exploded if not they cart it off and once a year they are disposed of. The countries involved ie

France, Belgium, Netherland etc rotate their army bomb squads through this duty annually. It is estimated that that there was more

than 10 million shells fired every year during the war and one third of these did not explode for various reason. bear in mind that the first

world war ended almost 100 years ago and they are still finding shells.

and equipment and skeletons. over 1/4 million mens' bodies were never found. The explosions would vapourize their bodies turning the

air into a fine red mist or else they would be hastily buried where they died or else they would just sink into the mud. When their bodies are found every effort is made to identify them but they are buried in military graveyards in Europe. This was the agreement made that no bodies would be shipped home to the families. This was part of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919.