World Cleanup Day is an annual global social action program coordinated by the Let's Do It World NGO. It's easy to think that one small organisation won't make any difference, but by playing our part, we can make our world a cleaner place. With that in mind, last Thursday we took a team of people to the streets of Wokingham...

60,000 Tons of Waste Collected in One Day!

World Clean Up Day is a fairly new initiative; it has engaged more than 71 million (known) volunteers since 2018. In 2022, 190 countries took part, collecting a total of 60,000 tons of waste. It takes a LOT of people to make that happen and we were pleased to play a small part here in the UK.

How Much Did We Collect?

Our head office is situated on Oaklands Business Park in Wokingham. We were unsure as to how much rubbish we would find on a business park, but we soon discovered that a small group of people can collect a lot of waste in the space of an hour!  We used litter pickers and ensured we separated waste from recyclable items.

You won't be surprised to learn that the most collected items were cans, empty bottles, and cigarette butts. Did you know that worldwide we produce approximately 6 trillion cigarettes every year, generating over 1.2 million tons of cigarette butt waste. These are incredibly harmful to the environment as they release toxic chemicals into streams, rivers, and oceans.

Thank you to our willing volunteers who gave up an hour of their day to take part in World Cleanup Day 2023. All of this rubbish from a small corner of the business park, shows how important it is to play our part!

If you would like to take part in World Cleanup Day next year, there's a helpful step-by-step guide on how best go about it, here.