I hated them at school, but now I see how cleaning up the world is changing our environment

Imagine someone collecting all the rubbish you produce during the year and spreading it all over the forest. And then that a group of volunteers packs them back into bags. Within several dozen hours.

At first I confess to one thing – in primary school times, cleaning up the world was the worst thing for me. Seeing (and feeling) scattered cans, wet juice packages, pies and plastic bags, I began to dream of returning to Polish lessons. Talks about the need to keep your surroundings clean somehow didn’t get to me.

In retrospect, however, I am not so surprised. A short walk out around the area usually ended up collecting two or three large bags. The man looked around helplessly at the time and thought: "Really? Is that the whole effect? ​​" And nearby green areas were cluttered, so after our perky passage they still remained.

However, it is probably a bit like cleaning the world with good school readings. You just have to mature to it. How? It’s best to realize how much you can do in one inconspicuous action.

How much rubbish does a statistical Pole produce?

As a society, we still produce relatively little waste – the average Pole discards about 315 kg of rubbish every year. Probably a small percentage goes to the streets, squares and beaches. However, I am writing about it to better illustrate the effects that can be achieved thanks to a short coordinated cleaning action.

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@CocaColaCo #KeurigDrPepper @McDonaldsCorp @ProcterGamble @StarbucksNews

– WWF Sustainability Works (@WWFBetterBiz) June 17, 2020

Imagine, then, a garbage bag that you take out of the apartment to the trash every day. Multiply it 365 days a year. And now two more times.

And now – note – it’s still less than during one of the May Clean Up World, during which the volunteers cleaned only within 3 days. And they cleaned the soil of exactly 776.04 kg of waste.

Garbage was collected in Łódź, Aleksandrów Łódzki and in Warsaw’s Targówek, i.e. in the vicinity of factories belonging to the company Procter & Gamble , which is a partner of this event. During the action, the Volunteer Nature Guard and residents found items such as old sofas, tables, toilet bowls, old tires and gas cans.

A man who inspired millions

All this would not have happened without Australian sailor Ian Kiernan. In 1989 he initiated the cleaning of the port of Sydney. The action was such a success that a year later the whole continent moved with sacks into the field.

Today, tens of millions of people in over 40 countries take part in cleaning up the world. From 1994 also in Poland. The organizer of the great orders is our foundation founded by Mira Stanisławska – Meysztowicz.

Every year there are more and more people willing to such social activities. And no wonder. Thanks to mass media, images and information reach us showing the devastation of our planet every day. When in 2018 the British swimmer Lewis Pugh sailed 560 km along the English Channel with horror he mentioned that he met drifting bags more often than dolphins.

A few months earlier, the world went around the bottom of the Marian Trench – the deepest known place on Earth. Japanese scientists who study the ocean floor found plastic bags there. Under natural conditions, this raw material decomposes from several hundred to even a thousand years.

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– Procter & Gamble (@ProcterGamble) June 22, 2020

That is why it is so important that it circulates in a closed circuit. And this means that it must be recyclable, subject to recycling, and then the product resulting from recycling, the so-called PCR must be used in the production of new packaging. Procter & Gamble takes care of all these issues, today 88% of the company’s product packaging is recyclable, and the raw material for new packaging, at least 25% is PCR. In addition, the company, in cooperation with social organizations, collects plastic thrown onto the beach of the seas and uses it to produce bottles of Head & Shoulders shampoo . Thanks to this, it not only prevents littering of water reservoirs with plastic, but even helps clean them.

May mobilization is just the beginning of a great cleaning. The final of the action is planned for September. And then it’s time to supplement knowledge: from autumn, Procter & Gamble, together with the Our Earth Foundation, will provide students, teachers and parents with educational materials, including segregation of garbage, and plastic properties as a raw material.

One of the most important issues related to plastic is its proper segregation. Without it, we will not be able to effectively recycle it and then reuse it, e.g. in the production of packaging. Each of us can contribute to this process – sorting out rubbish at home. We want to support the sense of responsibility for our planet in the young generation. That is why, together with the Nasz Ziemie Foundation and primary school students, we have already organized 2 actions to clean the world as part of the Clean Earth program. We are now working on comprehensive educational materials on ecology, waste segregation, saving natural resources and energy, which will be available to teachers and parents in the fall

– comments Małgorzata Mejer, Corporate Communications Manager at Procter & Gamble in Central Europe, partner of this year’s Clean Up the World Action and May PreStart.

* The material was created in cooperation with P&G

I hated them at school, but now I see how cleaning up the world is changing our environment

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