3 minute read
A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER
Talking to Ingird Nielsen about her organisation’s World Cleanup Day Initiative
Last year, BITA announced the launch of #beplasticaware, an initiative of the Global Forum, to increase awareness of the impact of plastic pollution across the world. This will be a long-term focus dedicated to galvanising BITA members and communities through charitable action and organisational dedication to plastic reduction. Our participation in the 2021 World Cleanup Day is the next step on our mission to encourage our members to get involved where possible and make a real change for the better.
Following a successful involvement in Beach Cleanup Day in 2020, this year we are working directly with Let’s Do It World, the organisers of World Cleanup Day, and spoke to their Head of Global Communication, Ingrid Nielsen, about the initiative.
The NGO Let’s Do It World spans 150 countries and was founded as a result of a one-off day of action called Let’s Do It in Estonia in 2008.
Around the mid-2000s, Estonians started to see more issues with illegal dumping and litter, and in 2007, a group of friends decided to get together and spend a day collecting litter and clearing natural sites of illegally dumped waste. It appears this initiative spoke to a lot of Estonians, and the idea caught fire with the general population.
“In a matter of months, a technological solution to map illegal waste was created,” explains Ingrid, “volunteer trash hunters registered trash sites, agreements were reached with municipalities and local governments for removal of the collected trash and on 3rd May 2008, 50,000 Estonians cleaned the whole country up in 4 hours.”
A story like that was too good not to promote, and by 2012 nearly 100 countries were implementing Cleanups with the same format. In 2018, for the 100th Independence Day of Estonia, 157 countries participated in the first ever World Cleanup day. “There was this world-wide movement,” says Ingrid, “17.6 million people participated that year, with wave of green Cleanups starting in New Zealand and ending in Hawaii. Tonnes of litter and trash were collected, and in 2019 the numbers were even higher, with 21.2 million people taking part.”
The threshold for change in a population is when 5% of that population gets involved or engaged with an initiative or idea, and in some of the 157 nations that take part, that magic 5% has not yet been reached. Over the next few years, Let’s Do It World will be focussing their efforts on increasing in-nation participation, and where BITA feels that we can help, buy encouraging participation from ourselves, families and members.
Due to restrictions in 2020, there were limited organised Cleanups, and the participation number fell more than 50% to 11 million. However, Ingrid says that she was amazed to see a swell of more grass-roots support. “There were images all over social media of people taking the initiative and going out alone, or with their families and just collecting bags of trash and making a difference just to their local areas. It was marvellous to see!”
It can be difficult in the face of a relentless barrage of depressing headlines to think you can make a difference alone, but of course that is not true. We can all make decisions that impact the world around us, whether deciding to follow the Leeds example (see page X) of making one more journey a week by foot or bike or choosing to buy from a local greengrocer that doesn’t wrap their produce in plastic. Ingrid agrees.
“Do something every day that makes the world kinder to the environment. Start small and simple, but don’t stop, be curious, and don’t be scared to change. And of course, send your elected representative an email asking for a commitment to a greener world and concrete steps to achieve it.”
Leaving the last words to Ingrid, I asked what she would say to anyone who is considering participation this year, “Let’s beat trash blindness in 2021! Grab gloves and a trash bag and pick up trash on a walk, on your way to the market, in the park, on a beach, at a riverside, behind your house, or anywhere! Do a cleanup alone, or in a group! Let’s change the world for good.”
