Estonia aiming to clean up the world

Estonian cleaning movement, Let's Do It!, intends to initiate an international clean-up in September of this year. 

In 2008 50,000 people signed up to clean the whole of Estonia in a single day. Since then the group has gone global and is now seeking to unite an extensive network of NGOs, civic groups, institutions and individual volunteers across 150 countries for a global clean-up day.

In anticipation of the global clean-up day, the Let’s Do It! movement organised the Clean World Conference, which brought civic leaders from 90 countries to the Estonian capital, Tallinn, earlier this month. According to Eva Truuverk from the Let’s Do It Foundation, 116 countries have so far confirmed their participation on the World Cleanup Day in September.

The main aim is to tackle the four billion tonnes of waste produced annually in the world. Of this, 1.6 billion tonnes is household refuse. With roughly half the global population having no access to recycling facilities this rubbish simply lingers. The plan for the worldwide clean-up day is to start in Japan in the morning and to finish the day in Hawaii, having made a significant difference to these statistics.