Sep 22 - Gibraltar Is All Set For This Saturday’s Clean Up The World Campaign
This year’s Clean up the World in Gibraltar will see over twenty teams and hundreds of volunteers roll up their sleeves and together free several sites around Gibraltar of litter and harmful waste. Saturday the 26th September will see Gibraltar’s comprehensive schools, youth clubs, businesses and agencies get busy at various allocated spots for a number of hours as from mid-morning.
Once again underwater and green areas are targeted along with coastal sites, and the key problem the Environemntal Safety Group (ESG) will be tackling is the ever-growing presence of plastic litter, which poses a serious risk to birds and wildlife in general.
This will be Gibraltar’s eleventh participation in the global Clean up the World campaign, which inspires and encourages millions around the world to fix up, green up and conserve our environment. The organisers says they are extremely proud of how the Gibraltar community responds each year to the call to action. One notable change this year is the absence of the Annual Parade and Exhibition. Instead, organisers are hoping to run a number of workshops with interested schools to explore “clean up issues” and take these forward during 2015.
As each year passes the ‘clean up’ achieves more of its goals and the ESG says it is confident that this progress is aided both by the very visual annual day of action and the year-round campaigning sustained via the Litter Committee that ensures these issues are pursued long after the weekend clean up effort has been and gone. The networking that takes place during the planning of the event also brings the issues into focus and this is an important aspect of the campaign.
A statement from the group ended: “We are very pleased to report that after our many years of effort three major and valued hotspots are now receiving the attention they deserve: these are: Witham’s Cemetery, soon to get a facelift, the Northern Defences undergoing major refurbishment, and the Seven Sisters coastline that has proven a great challenge to our teams. Slowly but surely we are working our way around problem sites and pending issues and we shall work hard to see solutions and systems realised to advance our waste management and litter control in Gibraltar.”
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