World Cleanup Day is a global

social action In sociology, social action, also known as Weberian social action, is an act which takes into account the actions and reactions of individuals (or ' agents'). According to Max Weber, "Action is 'social' insofar as its subjective meaning takes acc ...

program aimed at combating the global solid waste problem, including the problem of

marine debris Marine debris, also known as marine litter, is human-created solid material that has deliberately or accidentally been released in seas or the ocean. Floating oceanic debris tends to accumulate at the center of gyres and on coastlines, freque ...

. It is held annually on 20 September, and is coordinated by the global organization Let's Do It! World, whose headquarters are located in

Tallinn, Estonia Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

. World Cleanup Day includes

litter Litter consists of waste products that have been discarded incorrectly, without consent, at an unsuitable location. The waste is objects, often man-made, such as aluminum cans, paper cups, food wrappers, cardboard boxes or plastic bottles, but ...

cleanup Cleanup, clean up or clean-up may refer to: * Cleanup (animation), a stage of animation workflow * Clean-up (environment), environmental action to remove litter from a place * Cleanup hitter, a baseball position * Clean-up Records, a record la ...

and waste mapping activities spanning every time zone. Environmental cleanup events are held in nearly every country until concluding near the international date line in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

and American

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

. From 2024, World Cleanup Day has been declared an official UN holiday, and added to the official UN calendar of days and weeks.

Purpose

World Cleanup Day aims to raise awareness of the mismanaged waste crisis by mobilizing all spheres of society to participate in cleanup actions. Individuals, governments, corporations and organizations are all encouraged to take part in cleanups and to find solutions to tackle mismanaged waste. There are numerous organizations that facilitate and host World Cleanup Day events globally. Like

Earth Day Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally through earthday.org (formerly Earth Day Network) includin ...

, World Cleanup Day is non-partisan, apolitical, and is not affiliated with any national or global

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

or discrete

ideology An ideology is a set of beliefs or values attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Form ...

History

The inaugural World Cleanup Day was 15 September 2018, but it builds on the successes of previous global cleanup efforts. The goal of World Cleanup Day 2018 was to involve 5% of the world's population (or approximately 380 million people). While the effort fell short of the goal, it directly mobilized 18 million people worldwide. The 2019 World Cleanup Day was held on the 19th of September and coincided with Peace Day and the Global climate strike of September 2019. World clean up day in Ghana 2023

Global cleanup efforts have existed in many forms throughout human history, especially after widespread catastrophes such as

earthquakes An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they c ...

floods A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

, and powerful

tsunamis A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, la ...

. In modern history, these efforts are typically undertaken by the affected communities, with support from various

international organizations An international organization, also known as an intergovernmental organization or an international institution, is an organization that is established by a treaty or other type of instrument governed by international law and possesses its own leg ...

and NGOs, such as

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs), focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. It began as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief ...

, and other relief organizations but typically in post-conflict zones. They have included efforts to remove land mines, beach cleanups, and other municipal and non-governmental actions. Since 2020 there also exists a Digital Cleanup Day. Initially known as Cyber World Cleanup Day, this day of action aims to draw attention to digital ecological footprints and the associated environmental impact.

Participants

Participants in World Cleanup Days are typically volunteers, with coordination from

non-governmental organizations A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

who assist in awareness-raising, logistics, and fundraising.

References

External links

Official website
{{Environmentalism Recurring events established in 2018 International environmental organizations September

Purpose

History

Participants

See also

References

External links