31 teams clean up the Volga river

On the 29th of August, 31 cleanups took place along the river Volga and its basin, supported by 400 participants and the joint effort of Let’s do it! Russia, Clean Hands Clean Rivers and River Cleanup.

8,000,000,000 kg / year

Every year, 8 billion kg of plastic waste ends up in our seas and oceans uncontrolled. 80% of this ends up there via rivers. We are all aware of the impact on animals and nature. The consequences for our health are also becoming clearer: for example, we know that plastics break down over time into micro and nano particles that enter our body through food and drinking water. it’s time for our action!

“Our key objective is to create awareness and activate people to become part of the solution”, says Thomas de Groote, founder of River Cleanup and the organizer of Volga River Cleanup.

Covid-proof actions

Several individual actions and small cleanups took place in Volgograd, Tver, Astrakhan, Saratov, Volzhsky, Domodedovo, Cheboksary, Oryol, Kamyshin, Nizhniy Novgorod, Kazan and many more.Mor than 400 people participated in 31 different teams. “The approach was different compared to last year as we had to keep in mind the restrictions and covid-19 regulations. So no big actions, but many small actions this time!” says Anastasia Nikulina, coordinator of Let’s do it! Russia.

Local actions, global impact!

The River Cleanup action for Volga river was a great positive warm-up for the World Cleanup Day on September 19th organised by the Lets’ Do It World Network (www.worldcleanupday,org). On this day over 180 countries take action to clean our planet on one day.

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