About 20,000 volunteers participated in the Green Cleanup campaign in Croatia, collecting over 1,000 tonnes of waste, the non-governmental organisation Zmergo told a press conference in the northern coastal resort of Opatija on Saturday, citing preliminary results from 40% of 300 sites throughout the country.
Helena Traub of Zmergo, which coordinated the campaign, said that based on the preliminary results they expected the same or better overall result than last year when over 3,700 tonnes of waste had been collected.
The campaign began at some of the sites this past week and will continue at some of them over the weekend and throughout next week. Most local government units said that such a campaign should be conducted at least twice a year, the press were told.
The Green Cleanup is Croatia's largest environmental volunteer campaign aimed at cleaning up illegal waste disposal sites throughout the country. The purpose of the campaign is to locate wild dumping sites, mark them on an online map and clear them.
The campaign was first carried out in Croatia last year when 41,558 volunteers took part and removed 3,746 tonnes of waste. It is held as part of the global campaign World Cleanup.
