“Let’s clean up Bulgaria together” with new record results in the 11th edition of the initiative

• 6,092 polluted locations were cleaned, 596 gardens and educational institutions joined in 2023.
• Thousands of volunteers cleaned, beautified and reforested together on September 16, with more than 100 organizations joining the campaign for the first time

A record 6,092 polluted areas and unregulated landfills were cleaned from the territory of the country in this year’s edition of the campaign “Let’s clean up Bulgaria together”. The data of the main partner of the campaign – the Ministry of Environment and Water show that that the initiative in 2023 was the largest in scale and territorial scope to date. For comparison, the previous record was set in 2019, when the number of cleared areas was 5,156. The number of unregulated landfills that were removed in 2023. is 512, 100 more than 2022. The restored and improved spaces this year are 213.

The second recordwhich the 11th edition of the campaign registers belongs to children, who were also the main focus of the 2023 initiative. 596 kindergartens and educational institutions joined “Let’s clean up Bulgaria together” (575 were their number in 2022). Thousands of children, together with their parents, teachers, friends, sports clubs and interest clubs this year went out and cleaned Bulgaria again. They also participated in a number of actions for improvement, painting, afforestation, as well as other activities that improve the living environment in our country. In many places, the day of cleaning ended with special festive events.

According to data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the amount of garbage collected is more than 4,340 tons, with landfills still accepting waste from the day of the campaign. The number of volunteers who in 2023 were not afraid of the bad weather in places, or gave their contribution the next day when the weather conditions allowed it, is 301,780 people. In 2022 there were nearly 280 thousand volunteers. The data does not include the citizens who contributed to a cleaner environment around us and went out to clean without joining previously formed groups. The number of organizations and NGOs that in 2023 joined with a large part of their employees is close 350. 100 of them join the initiative in the first year.

All these data show that the campaign achieves results close to or higher than those in 2019. and before the restrictions imposed by the pandemic.

It is the most active area this year as well ruse, where the most volunteers came out. It ranks after them Burgas, where thousands joined the recovery of the Southern Black Sea coast, which was seriously affected in early September. A number of underwater and water actions were held there, the beaches and populated areas were cleaned. A large amount of timber was collected or removed from the water and prepared for collection and removal. It ranks among the most active areas this year again Blagoevgrada Stara Zagora, Plovdiv and Vratsa in 2023 showed very high activity and fall into the top six.

And this year, the participants in the volunteer initiative came across many curious finds. Volunteers found 20 sacks of live wool, three toilet bowls, old windows and a sink. Many tires, canvases, plastic chairs, ropes, cables, cans and dishes were taken out from the bottom of the native Black Sea. Plastic waste such as packaging, bags, straws, bottles and others continue to be among the most frequently discarded objects that pollute nature in urban and non-urban environments.

Main focus in the 11th edition of “Let’s clean up Bulgaria together”, which again supported World cleaning day, organized by Let’s Do It World, was the personal responsibility and contribution in caring for the cleanliness of the planet, the future and the education of children. You can see how the day of the big cleaning went and more interesting information from the different shares and regions here.