The Cleanup Festival
World Cleanup Day is a global social action program aimed at combating the global solid waste problem, including the problem of marine debris. The first World Cleanup Day was September15, 2018 where over 17.8 million people in about 157 countries participated. The second annual World Cleanup Day was in September 21, 2019 and had litter cleanup activities spanning every time zone and is held in nearly every country.
Our Cleanup event was focused on tackling the environmental challenges within our
communities by mobilizing hundreds of positive-minded students into coordinated local and global actions against environmental degradation. To achieve this dream, we were open to support from organizations in the public and private sector that are enthusiastic about a sustainable environment.
On Saturday 21st September 2019, U-Recycle partnered with The Green Club UNILAG to host a cleanup Festival in commemoration of World Cleanup Day: featuring, Street Cleanups, Fitness session, Eco-talks, the Environmental pledge, Games, and more.
Our event was sponsored by Cycled Technologies and Keystone bank.
The Cleanup Festival commenced with a brief Fitness session to pump everyone up and spread good vibes as we set to commence the street cleanup. Amidst smiles and brightly colored shirts of yellow, green and blue, attendees were divided into three teams to cleanup three litter sites [Unilag gate, Indomie bridge and the Lagoon front] while cleaning materials like hand gloves, face masks, rakes, brooms, parkers and bin bags were distributed among the teams. After ashort trek participants arrived at their various cleanup sites and cleaning lasted forapproximately 2hours+. In the end we were able to cleanup about 200kg of waste.
Shortly afterwards, attendees returned to the meeting point, washed their hands, snacks and drinks were served and soon after there was an enlightening talk sessions by two guests focused on educating the audience on Climate Change and the need for all to ACT NOW highlighting effective ways they can act towards promoting a clean and healthy environment and tackle Climate Change.
The Cycled treasure hunt was played soon after. Bottles wrapped in blue ribbons were hidden all around the park and attendees were to search for this bottles. At the end of the game the winners were rewarded with cash and airtime prizes.
We ended the Festival with a pledge to the environment. Every participant made a pledge and commitment towards preserving the environment as they stamped their hands dipped with coloring on a plain fabric.
We had over 220 participants in attendance.
U-recycle Initiative Africa is a registered (CAC/IT/NO 157391) youth-led, non-profit organization committed to advancing circular economy, environmental sustainability, and climate action across Africa.