Let's do it 2008 ( et, Teeme ära 2008) was a large campaign on 3 May 2008, to activate civic society in

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and t ...

in an effort to cleanup the country from litter. It was organized by Let's Do It! World.

Preparation

The litter pickup spots were marked by volunteers beforehand who used mobile phones to record the locations to a mapping system similar to

Google maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...

. locations were recorded in total. Cultural figures, such as Jaan Tätte and Jarek Kasar , helped promote the campaign by participating in televised advertisements. Over partners helped during the cleanup organization process. Volunteers registering to the cleanup were asked to form 3-15 member teams, with each team receiving instructions before the cleanup day via e-mail.

Cleanup

Over people, or approximately 4% of the population of 1.3 million, participated in the cleanup of the forests and countryside. More than tons of garbage were removed from the country's forest in about 5 hours for less than euros. Under normal circumstances it would have taken the government 3 years and 22.5 million euros to accomplish a similar feat. The organization team consisted of Rainer Nõlvak,

Toomas Trapido Toomas Trapido (born 15 April 1972 in Tallinn) is an Estonian Estonian biologist, researcher, educator, and politician. He was a member of the XI Riigikogu. He is a member of the Estonian Greens The Estonian Greens ( et, Erakond Eestimaa ...

, Kadri Allikmäe,

Henri Laupmaa Henri Laupmaa (born 14 March 1975) is an Estonian IT entrepreneur and a board member of the Estonian Nature Fund. He has studied international management in Concordia International University Estonia and Concordia University Wisconsin (BA, 1997) ...

, Ahti Heinla, Eva Truuverk, Tiina Urm, Anneli Ohvril and Jüri-Ott Salm.

Spreading the model

Shortly after the event,

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

organized a similar nation-wide event every year (). In September 2008, volunteers participated. Lithuania and Latvia organized larger scale events in April 2009 with volunteers. On 17 April 2010 a similar event was organized in Slovenia - ''

Let's Clean Slovenia in One Day! ''Let's Clean Slovenia in One Day!'' ( sl, Očistimo Slovenijo v enem dnevu!; OSVED!) was a Slovenian environmental volunteer project organized by the environmental organization Ecologists Without Borders on 17 April 2010. Its goal was carrying o ...

'' (''Očistimo slovenijo v enem dnevu'') with 12% of population participating ( volunteers). And again in 2012: '' Let's Clean Slovenia 2012''. In 2017, the United States held their first National Cleanup Day and joined with Let's Do It! World. Worldwide cleanup events eventually led to the international organization Let's Do It! World, and the creation of a unified

World Cleanup Day World Cleanup Day is an annual global social action program aimed at combating the global solid waste problem, including the problem of marine debris. It is coordinated by the global organization Let's Do It! World, the headquarters is located i ...

program, and the inaugural World Cleanup Day event in 2018.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Let's Do It World site

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