On September 15th, volunteers from all over the world took part in a global campaign – the World Clean-up Day with the aim of working together to remove waste from the environment and reduce its impact by placing it by type in the places designated for their disposal and, hopefully, consequent recycling.
This green wave has united millions of people from New Zealand to Hawaii, passing through Venice, with the aim o of, not only cleaning up the environment but of promoting the exercise of active citizenship on a global level for a culture of renewed respect towards our lagoon and its eaves.
The activity is inspired by the “Plastic Free Initiative“, a clean-up event organized between 8 and 9 June on the occasion of World Ocean Day, by the UNESCO Office for Europe in partnership with the Municipality of Venice and VERITAS. This new edition aimed to strengthen the self-management of this initiative by aiming for its future sustainability, expanding its impact in terms of participation and extension of the sites that benefited from the intervention, including the mainland and broader lagoon areas.
The initiative, of a purely civic and educational nature, without any political connotation, is open to every single individual of any nationality, to associations and sensitive economic categories. With this idea, it managed to mobilize a large number of participants who, with a spirit of voluntary service, did their utmost throughout the day in a demanding clean-up job of plastic waste which, accidentally or voluntarily abandoned, now invades vast lagoon areas, the waterways of the eaves and the mainland.
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