Every year, millions of tonnes of litter end up in oceans, beaches, forests and elsewhere in nature.

The primary causes are our societies’ unsustainable production and consumption patterns, poor waste management strategies and the lack of awareness of the population. In order to reduce littering in nature and to give visibility to the issue, the EWWR (European Week for Waste Reduction) coordinates a Europe-wide annual clean-up day.

Several clean-up campaigns have taken place in Europe over the past years to tackle the litter problem.

The European Clean-Up Day, “Let’s Clean Up Europe!”, intends to bring these initiatives together to have a Europe-wide clean-up event that takes place on the same day all over the continent; involving and reaching as many citizens as possible.

The European Clean-Up Day will take place on 8-10 May 2015, and by being part of “Let’s Clean Up Europe!” and helping to clean up their environment, participants can see how much waste is being dumped in their neighbourhood. This action provides a unique opportunity to raise citizen’s awareness on the litter problem and to help changing people’s behavior.

The BCC support our member organisation, Keep Britain Tidy, who are backing this campaign and there is a Twitter hashtag for people to keep up to date with how the clean up weekend is going. #CleanUpEurope.