Lahti and Lappeenranta challenge everyone to join the world’s largest community clean-up for one hour

Lahti and Lappeenranta, two Finnish cities that are both environmental forerunners, are launching an international challenge campaign, the purpose of which is to encourage people to take an interest in the cleanliness of their environment by collecting litter.

The campaign encourages everyone to spend one hour in nature cleaning up in May.

The #Zeropollutionhour campaign particularly challenges other cities, companies, workplaces and communities to spend one hour in May collecting litter and waste out of nature.

The challenge campaign’s homepage can be found at: https://www.greenreality.fi/en/acts/zeropollutionhour. A Facebook event has also been created for the campaign.

Participants in the campaign are encouraged to post on social media with the hashtag #zeropollutionhour (as well as #tuntitoukokuussa for those in Finland) and mark the area they helped clean on the map using the #tuntitoukokuussa -haastekampanja roskien keräykseen (maptionnaire.com). (Map open in May, please choose your language)

Lahti and Lappeenranta lead by example with their local campaigns

Anyone can take part in the clean-up challenge either individually or as a group. Larger local campaigns can also be organised as in Lahti and Lappeenranta.

In Lappeenranta, the local campaign Matti Muovinen Wanted! (Save Matt the Plastic) (#mattimuovinenwanted) will be organised on 7–9 May, and the city will be giving guidance and instructions and offering tools for collecting litter. The campaign’s homepage and further information can be found at: https://www.greenreality.fi/teot/matti-muovinen-roskien-kerayskampanja (in Finnish).

Lahti is organising the Siisti Lahti (Clean Lahti) campaign (#siistilahti) that will run throughout May. The city’s schools and residents’ associations can participate in the clean-up challenge by organising communal clean-up events. Schoolchildren in Lahti traditionally participate in the challenge with their own communal clean-up day. Instructions on how to organise communal clean-up events can be found at: https://www.lahti.fi/kaupunki-ja-paatoksenteko/osallistu-ja-vaikuta/siivoustalkoot (in Finnish).

The clean-up campaign is part of the European Union’s Green Week

The cities of Lahti and Lappeenranta will follow the progress of the campaign on social media through, for example, the number of people participating in social media events and posting hashtags.

The joint campaign between Lahti and Lappeenranta is part of EU Green Week. This year, the theme of Green Week focuses on zero-pollution targets.

Lahti and Lappeenranta are among the green cities awarded by the EU this year. Lahti is the European Green Capital 2021 and Lappeenranta is a European Green Leaf 2021 city.

The campaign complies with current covid-19 restrictions.