Czech autumn cleanup: volunteers collect 21 tonnes of litter

In the autumn wave of the “Ukliďme svět” (“Let’s Clean Up the World”) campaign, 21,524 kg of litter was removed from the Czech countryside. Volunteers managed to sort 4,387 kg of glass, plastic and paper.

Schoolchildren as the main cleaners

The autumn part of the campaign was largely driven by school and youth groups: children and teenagers under 18 made up 80% of registered volunteers. Kindergartens, primary and secondary schools often combined litter picking with a hands-on lesson about recycling and ecology right in the field. “We teach children that caring for our planet doesn’t start somewhere far away, but right here — in front of the kindergarten, in the park, on the street and at home,” explains a representative of the Podbělohorská kindergarten in Prague, describing what motivates the young helpers.

There is good news from groups that clean the same places repeatedly: there is less litter year after year. “As every year, the cleanup went well, and we see something wonderful: thanks to this campaign there is less litter, and it gets better every year,” confirm the organisers of the event in Chýně in the Central Bohemian Region. Volunteers on the banks of the Bečva river in Janová in the Vsetín region have a similar experience: “I’m very glad that the result of our previous work was visible — there was hardly any litter here, just two small bags.”

What turns up in Czech nature

As always, the most common finds in the Czech landscape were cigarette butts, PET bottles, glass bottles and aluminium cans, mostly from energy drinks. Students from Prague’s Kampa, for example, collected a huge amount of broken glass and cigarette butts in an hour and a quarter along just 100 metres of the embankment by the Sova’s Mills. “People, come to your senses! We only have one Earth!” they wrote on the campaign’s website.

Besides ordinary household and construction waste, volunteers came across curious objects. In the bushes they found a laundry basket, an old computer, a phone, tyres, a road sign and even unopened jars of homemade honey and jam. The cleanup by the ERIZA group in the Central Bohemian Region drew particular interest: “During the cleanup the children made up an entire detective story based on the unusual finds: a set of gold Audi alloy wheels, a young driver’s almost new driving licence, a whole set of men’s clothing in the bushes… At the end of the event the children asked only one question: when are we going to clean up again?”

A less cheerful discovery was used syringes, which cleaners came across in several places around the country. All the dangerous items were collected safely and handed over to the Czech police.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by ekolist.cz