The Great Styrian Spring Clean-Up 2021

The Great Styrian Spring Clean- Up is an important anti-littering campaign in Styria. This year, this initiative takes place in collaboration with the PLASTECO project for the first time. Since its start in the year 2008, a total of more than two million kilograms of litter left behind in nature has been collected by volunteers guided by the motto "Stop Littering". With good reason this event is the largest litter collection campaign in Europe.

This year, the Spring Clean- Up will take place for the 13th time – of course in compliance with all necessary prevention measures with respect to the current pandemic situation.

From April 14 2021 to May 29 2021, participants can register themselves and are provided the necessary equipment to collect the waste. In this way citizens make an extremely important and even fun contribution to environmental protection in Styria. And not to forget, there is also something to win for the participants.

With this in mind, Dr. Ingrid Winter, Head of Department Waste and Resource Management (Directorate 14- Office of the Regional Government of Styria) and PLASTECO project manager of partner Region STYRIA, presented the schedule for this year's Spring Clean- Up on regional television before the campaign began.

At the same time, the numerous partners of the event also expressed their support and promised the Styrian Region their active support in cleaning up the Styrian nature.

It is obvious that this year's Spring Clean-Up cannot take place as usual in the form of a large social event. For that reason, the organizers have come up with some ideas to motivate children and young people to participate. For example, a DIY tutorial for wooden litter picks has been put online, and a competition for ideas for creative litter bins has also been launched. For young people, there is also a photo competition. Particularly educational for young and old is a new waste separation game, which can be downloaded from various app stores. This game teaches players how to separate waste correctly in Styria and thus aims to counteract misplaced waste and littering in an entertaining way.

Furthermore, all participants can send photos of their collection trips to the organizers and they will be uploaded on the Spring Clean- Up website (www.saubere.steiermark.at).

In particular last year, many people in Styria took advantage of the local nature to escape the dreary daily routine of a pandemic. This makes this year's Spring Clean-Up even more important. Unfortunately, many people have not only used our nature for calming down, but have also carelessly left their garbage there. It is therefore especially important that motivated and aware citizens take on the task of collecting waste in nature and participate in the Great Styrian Spring Clean- Up. We are therefore sure that this year's Spring Clean-Up is especially necessary and significant for a “clean” Styria.