VIP Cleaning crew, including the former President of Slovenia Mr Kucan, EU Minister for Environment Mr Potocnik, Mayor of Ljubljana Mr Jankovic and others
For Slovenia, April 17, 2010 was marked by a massive national cleaning action, in which the participants cleaned several illegal dumping sites and picked up scattered litter across the country.
A group of young people, inspired by a similar action in Estonia in 2008, promoted the idea of cleaning up the entire country – in one day! The idea was soon backed up by several partners and supporters, and nation-wide campaign started. The campaign managed to involve and connect more or less the entire nation, including the Government, the President of Slovenia, local municipalities and organisations, media partners, the Olympic Committee of Slovenia, tourist organisations, the Slovenian Army, Fire-fighters, trash management companies, Slovenian universities, schools and kindergartens, etc. – with several companies and well-known individuals backing up the campaign and the project. University clubs and sports organisation, among them also the Slovenian University Sports Association (SUSA) were also among the promoters of the campaign, and we managed to involve thousands of students to participate in the campaign and the action of cleaning up the country itself.
The clean-up in Slovenia on April 17th was a huge success, breaking an absolute record and exceeding the expectations by engaging over 12,5% of the population – about 250,000 people were directly involved in the action. Among them were several politicians and representatives of the partners, including members of the Slovenian University Sports Association. The estimated figure of the collected garbage is impressive and shocking at the same time – over 80.000 m³ of garbage was removed, also from less-accessible spots like rivers and lakes.
After the clean-up activities, which started at 9AM and concluded around 2PM, three big parties were organised in the evening in Ljubljana, Maribor and Nova Gorica.
Prof. dr. Otmar Kugovnik, the President of SUSA commented: “I am very happy to see so many people, especially so many young people involved in this clean-up. This will undoubtedly raise the quality of the largest sport facility in Slovenia – outdoors, nature.” Dr. Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner for the Environment, who also participated in the action, proposed the idea of an all-Europe clean-up for 2011.
More about the Slovenian clean-up action and the global initiative can be found at the links below:
Slovenia – http://www.ocistimo.si
Global initiative Let’s do it – http://www.letsdoitworld.org
(Source: Andrej Pišl, SUSA)
Organisers and initiators
Cleaning in progress
Even cars were retrieved