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World Cleanup Day is an international initiative from the bottom-up civil movement Let’s Do It! World, which began a couple of years ago in Estonia. The goal is to clean up litter on streets, squares, parks, parking areas, along the banks of rivers and in nature simultaneously in as many countries as possible around the world. On September 21st, 2019, the Netherlands will take part for the second time.

For more information on the international initiative, visit worldcleanupday.org

As the name suggests, World Cleanup Day is held on the same day all around the world. This year’s date is Saturday September 21st, 2019. Keep the date open in your diary! Cleanup actions will start throughout the country during the day, at times determined by the organisers. Check the website for a cleanup that you can join close to your location. Or you can choose to create your own cleanup via the site. Other people can also choose to join your cleanup.

The Plastic Soup Foundation is responsible for the organisation of World Cleanup Day in The Netherlands. The Plastic Soup Foundation has been drawing attention to the problem of plastic since 2011 – with great success.

It’s unpleasant if there’s litter lying around that is not yours, but on Saturday September 21st 2019 we are going to put on our positive attitude and get out there with as many people as possible. We are going to make a difference! With this positive and very visible initiative we will be drawing attention to the litter problem. And we will be demonstrating that clearing up is the social norm. The result will be that less people will carelessly throw their litter on the street in the future. Also, on Saturday 21st September the Litterati-app will be used in a lot of countries, including the Netherlands. The app makes it easy to register the kind of litter found at each location. That’s called Citizen Science: ordinary people who together help to build an enormous databank which will help grow our knowledge of the litter problem. That will enable us to create better solutions at the source of the problem.

Click here to see a full list of the organisations and sponsors who have already joined the cleanup. There is no deadline for more sponsors to join. The organisation welcomes new partners if they would like to provide a contribution to the costs or the execution, create their own cleanups or help with spreading the message through their own social media channels.

Everybody is confronted with the problem of (plastic) litter. We need to solve it together. The organisers of World Cleanup Day believe that everybody should be able to participate. Everybody will be standing side-by-side on World Cleanup Day: environmental organisations, citizens, supermarket chains, and yes: the soft-drink manufacturers. The organisers are happy with all partners who – literally and figuratively – are willing to help map out the problem of litter. With all the data gathered we will steadfastly continue looking for structural solutions to the problem of litter in the environment.

There’s an interactive map on this website that shows all the cleanup actions that have been registered in the Netherlands. Click here to see it. New registrations are welcome, there’s always room for more cleanup actions! Join in by registering a new action on the map or by clicking on an existing action. The goal is of course to have as many participants in cleanups as possible, throughout the entire country.

Numerous businesses, organisations, schools, sport clubs and individuals have taken the initiative to start a cleanup.

The Plastic Soup Foundation has created this website to show all the local cleanups and to bring people in touch with each other. We are in contact with all initiatives and with the global organisation. We coordinate the media coverage of the World Cleanup Day in the Netherlands. We will also be organizing an event as a cleanup action on Saturday September 21st (location to be announced later) where we will create an impressive visualization of the huge problem that is litter in the present day.

Dozens of businesses and organisations register local cleanups on the site. They determine the starting time and location where they will meet on Saturday September 21st and start their cleanup. Some companies help World Cleanup Day with a financial contribution of 10.000 Euros max, or with a contribution in kind.

Easy: click on the button “JOIN US” and click on the map at the location where you would like to take part or enter the address in the search window at top left. Complete the form with the details requested. Your e-mail address will only be shared with the Plastic Soup Foundation and with participants who want to join your action.

Invite everybody around you to join your cleanup. Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp are of course great tools for this, but you can also invite them face-to-face! Share the link of the map with your cleanup and let everybody know where to find it on the map.

With the Litterati-app you can take pictures and tag the litter that you find. We want to act as one large team, registering the location of the litter but also the type of litter. This way, World Cleanup Day NL will not only be a massive cleanup but also a huge exercise in Citizen Science. Using the data that we gathered together, we can share the insights about the litter problem with all parties in the Netherlands who can play a role in tackling the problem at its source. We want all the data that we gathered to – again! – be an item on the NOS News and RTL News on September 21st.

It’s important to add tags in the Litterati-app to the litter found because the tags provide us with a lot of information. Make sure that you at least add tags regarding the manufacturer of the product (if visible on the litter), the material from which the litter is made, and the kind of litter. For example: ‘Manufacturer X’, ’plastic’ and ‘bottle’. Then we can do a good analysis of the data.

The organisation has chosen to bring as little as possible to the many locations around the country. The same applies to picking materials up at the end of the day. That saves thousands of kilometres driving back and forth around the country! Let’s keep it simple, clearing up litter is not rocket science. We have a couple of tips to help the organisers and participants. If you can’t or don’t want to have to stoop to pick up the litter, a garbage grabber can be useful. We recommend that all cleanup organisers approach their local municipality (gemeente) by telephone or website to enquire whether grabbers can be borrowed. We further recommend that participants bring and wear simple household or garden gloves. A roll of rubbish bags can be bought in any supermarket.

Rubbish that’s been lying around can, of course, be dirty. You will often find food packaging, sometimes with food scraps still present. That’s why we advise participants to bring and wear simple household or garden gloves. Latex gloves are not suitable as they are too thin and quickly tear.

The safety of the participants is very important! So don’t organise a cleanup along a busy main road, a national highway, motorway or railway line. The traffic will not be anticipating your presence at those locations. Be careful with young children, make sure that their supervisors are close to look after them and to make sure that they do not – for example – suddenly cross the road. We advise that, if you are taking children, you choose a safe location for your participation: woods, a park or a beach, or a quiet street with little traffic. You are responsible for your own safety.

Wear loose-fitting, comfortable clothing: if you are participating with a company or a sport club, try to all wear the same shirt. It will look great on pictures!

As already stated, the organisation has chosen to distribute as little as possible before and after the cleanup. Centralised collection of all the litter gathered throughout the Netherlands is, basically, not realistic. Every local municipality has standard agreements with a local garbage disposal company. If you are organizing a cleanup with a lot of participants at a heavily polluted location, you know that you will be collecting a lot of litter. In that case, contact your local municipality beforehand and ask if they can arrange the removal of the rubbish on September 21st (or directly after the weekend). Make sure you inform the municipality of the location of the bags. If you only gather a few rubbish bags, then it can be handled via the regular waste disposal (i.e. the [weekly] waste collection service or the underground containers in many large municipalities). It’s your own choice whether or not you want to separate the litter collected (plastic, glass, batteries etc.).

If you register to take part in a cleanup, you will be providing us with your name, phone number and e-mail address via the registration form. The only other person who will receive your e-mail address is the organiser of the cleanup which you have chosen to join, so that they can contact you on practical matters. The organisation will not be using your personal data for commercial purposes.