Let's Do It! World

Let's do it! World
Type Non-governmental organization
Purpose Environmentalism
Headquarters Tallinn, Estonia
Region served
113 countries
Leader Rainer Nõlvak
Volunteers
14,000,000 in 2016[1]
Website www.letsdoitworld.org/
Formerly called
 Teeme Ära! (2007-2008)[2]
Let's Do It! Mediterranean 2014 action in Cyprus
Let's Do It! Afghanistan 2015

Let's Do It! World is a global civic movement that started from Estonia, asking people worldwide to join a series of local, national and regional clean-up events. Among other projects, it is the founder of World Cleanup Day.

The Let's Do It! movement was first conceived in Estonia in year 2008, where a country clean-up action called Let's do it! (in Estonian: "Teeme Ära!") cleaned up 10,000 tons of illegal waste by more than 50,000 volunteers in one day. Following Estonia's lead many countries also started their own country clean-up events.[3][4] In 2011 a new initiative called Let's do it! World was started with the aim of promoting massive clean-ups from 24 March 2012 till 15 September 2012.[5] After a successful World Cleanup 2012 project the next bigger goal is to have World Cleanup Day in 2018.

Today, the movement has grown into a network of 113 countries. All together, 14 million participants have been engaged in movement's activities.[6]

Let's Do It! World is an accredited member of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The origins of the massive cleanup movement

On the 3d of May 2008 over 50,000 people came out of their homes to clean up Estonia, the rest followed the process via all the media channels. That's 4% out of a population of 1,3 million - which would equal 15,3 million in the USA or 57 million in India. The idea spread from Estonia to the whole Europe and beyond.[7] Next spring, in 2009, Latvia and Lithuania cleaned their countries with more than 250,000 people participating and have done it henceforth for three years, engaging more people each year.[8] On 20 March 2010 Portugal cleaned their country with 200,000 people.[9] Slovenia followed shortly, breaking all records with 270,000 people (which is 13% of the overall population of the country) taking part in the action.[10] In the beginning of June the same year, Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine was cleaned.[4] By the end of 2011 more than 2.5 million people have participated in Let’s Do It! cleanup actions in 16 countries – Estonia, India, Slovenia, Serbia, Finland, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine, Cambodia, Russia, Hungary and Brazil.[11]

World Cleanup 2012

In 2012, starting from 24 March until 25 September, a series of cleanups happened around the globe, on all continents, bringing together millions of volunteers in 96 countries.[5] The action was initiated on 24 March 2012 by volunteers in Slovenia and Portugal.

To bring together doers and initiators and share existing experience – Let's Do It! teams were organizing workshops and regional gatherings, introducing the World Cleanup 2012 around the world. Each group or organisation was leading the cleanup action in their country.[12]

World Cleanup actions until 2018

After a successful World Cleanup 2012 project, the network set more ambitious goals. During the Let's Do It! Clean World Conference held in Prishtina, Kosovo on the 6th-9th of February 2014, it was agreed, that the aim of the global movement is to clean up the whole World from illegally dumped solid waste and to then keep the planet clean. To reach the essential transformation in the global society, the leaders of country cleanups set the ambitious goal to involve 380 million people by 2018. According to Let's Do It! World, this is around 5% of the world’s population and is estimated to be the amount to create a lasting change.

Biggest cleanup actions

Let's Do It! Ukraine 2015

The most massive cleanup actions (data: October 2014) within the movement have happened in Slovenia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Kosovo and in Albania.

In 2012, 289,000 Slovenians came out of the homes and cleaned up the entire country in just one day. This is 14% of the country's population.

In 2013, 375,000 cleaned up the country in Bulgaria in a one-day country cleanup action (13,9% of country's population).

In 2012, 210,000 people (10% of country's population) cleaned up Latvia from illegal waste in just one day.

In 2013, a massive civic cleanup action also took place in Kosovo, bringing together 132,000 people (7% of the population) and in the same year, Albania also had a massive cleanup action, uniting 147,000 people (5,25%) to clean up the country in just one day.

In 2015, 250,000 people (8,6% of country's population) cleaned up Lithuania from illegal waste in one day.

In 2015, over 500,000 people participated in Let's Do It! actions in Ukraine cleaning up illegal dump-sites around the country.

See also

References

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