World Cleanup Day
flustix presents the 10 most important campaigns against plastic waste
15 September is WORLD CLEANUP DAY. On this day we want to try together to free nature of all that plastic waste and of pollution in general. And even if we are not quite so conscious of it on other days, on this one it is certainly worth lending a hand at one of the many terrific clean-up campaigns that already exist! Here is our selection of the most important campaigns for the big clean-up day:
#1 – Ocean Conservancy
For more than 30 years the US environmental organisation has been campaigning for marine conservation and calls for the largest voluntary clean-up campaign of all – the International Coastal Cleanup Day (ICC) tomorrow, 15 September. Under the slogan Trash Free Seas® it has mobilised 13 million ocean friends worldwide since 1985 and collected an incredible 113 million kilos of waste. #SuitUpToCleanUp (take part here)
To Our ICC Coordinators and Volunteers: Thank You
#2 – NABU
The German nature conservation association NABU has also taken part in the international coastal clean-up since 2010. The first project started on the island of Fehmarn under the motto ‘Seas without plastic’ and is now coordinated together with the German canoeing, sailing and diving associations on the online portal GEWÄSSERRETTER.DE and its app of the same name. (take part here)
#3 – BUND
BUND activists also plan and carry out their own beach clean-up campaigns at regular intervals on the North Sea and Baltic coasts, including as part of the ICC. (take part here)
#4 – World Cleanup Day / Let’s Do It
Supported by the EU and many other organisations (for example the Plastic Soup Foundation), this international project was born in Estonia 10 years ago and has already united more than 14 million people from 150 countries in an annual global citizens’ movement that does more than free beaches of plastic. This year World Cleanup Day coincides with International Coastal Cleanup Day on 15 September and will take place in Germany for the first time. The World Waste Platform, which pools data from several apps on mismanaged waste worldwide, even makes it possible to predict where waste accumulates. #ThreeFingersUp (take part here)
World Cleanup Day 2018 - Erklärfilm GER
#5 – Clean Up The World Weekend
What is probably the world’s largest environmental campaign will likewise call for the cleaning of our earth on 15/16 September and devote itself to the issues of plastic pollution. Starting out from Australia, it has persuaded more than 35 million people from 130 countries to clear up every year for the past 25 years. (take part here)
#6 – Surfrider Foundation Europe
Founded in 1990 by a handful of surfers, this community for the protection of lakes, rivers, ‘waves’ and coastlines now operates from its headquarters in France in nine European countries, represented by 12,000 members. At the annual Ocean Initiatives, clean-up campaigns are organised everywhere at the start of spring, and in 2018 a full 39,000 participants were won over. (take part here)
Beach Clean Up 2016 - Int. Ocean Film Tour & Friends
#7 – Surfers Against Sewage
The UK surfer organisation consists of plastic-free communities tackling the pollution of the seas, and welcomes self-organised beach cleans in its own country. It also encourages the individual, everyday #MiniBeachClean for when no larger collection campaign is coming up. Everyone here could take a leaf out of that book. (take part here)
#8 – Trash Hero
The Swiss organisation is building a network of volunteer waste-collecting heroes that is active above all in South East Asia. Its weekly clean-ups are increasingly being extended to Europe, Africa and the USA. (take part here)
#9 – One Island One Voice / Face The Sea
German holidaymakers can only partly enjoy the beaches of Indonesia and Bali these days, because plastic waste is piling up. That is why they have already taken part in waste collection campaigns held locally this year, each with around 20,000 participants – as in the previous year. (take part here)
One Island One Voice - Bali's Biggest Beach Clean Up, 19.02.17
#10 – World Environment Day
On World Environment Day the UN has been calling for commitment to environmental protection since 1974; this year, on 5 June, it addressed the plastic problem under the hashtag #BeatPlasticPollution. Large clean-up campaigns can be set in motion by connecting through the LITTERATI app. The UN is already supporting such campaigns in many ways on 15 September. #WorldEnvironmentDay (take part here)
2018 Caspian Sea Day - #BeatPlasticPollution PSA
The beach is the forecourt of the sea. In many places it shows what may be hidden ‘behind’ it in the water – namely the scale that plastic pollution of the oceans has reached. It is both a catchment basin for ocean waste gyres and a bin for beach visitors.
Scientists assume that around 8 million tonnes of plastic waste are washed into the sea every year. To stop this mountain of cigarette filters, straws and the rest from growing further, a rethink in plastic consumption is needed – and citizens are no longer sweeping only their own doorstep. Because quite apart from a growing fleet of ocean rubbish collectors fishing for waste directly at sea by technical means, such as the recently launched Ocean Clean Up project, more and more citizens are quite literally taking the waste problem into their own hands. They gather to collect pieces of plastic together on beaches of every kind.
Read on: Plastic waste in the sea.