June 20, 2019
The first River Cleanup with press, partners, friends and family was a success. The Scheldt in Antwerp is already a little bit cleaner. The concept behind the non-profit organization is simple but strong: clean a river, save an ocean. Why rivers? Every year, 8 billion kilograms of waste ends up uncontrolled in our seas and oceans. 80% of this ends up there via rivers! Founder Thomas de Groote explains to us in a short Q&A how he went from cleaning up for 10 minutes to cleaning 10 rivers! Every little bit helps a huge amount!
1) When did you first pick up a piece of litter?
Everything started in August 2017, a little less than two years ago. That's when I was challenged to do something super simple: spend 10 minutes, 10 days at a stretch.... The challenge was to spend 10 minutes picking up litter, AND making a post about it on social media....
At first I was like... Seriously? Me picking up someone else's trash? But my sister challenged me to do something crazy: make a crazy video of it. You'll have fun with it too.... And effectively! In the first action, the kids and I dressed up as superheroes and cleaned up the whole street.... This was followed by another plogging action: jogging while picking up litter. Later, I even cleaned up We Can Dance in Ostend with friends.
Every action we did during those 10 days was really fun!
Since that moment, something changed in me.... I started seeing litter, and it was really everywhere! So I decided to do something about it.
2) When did the idea for the River Cleanup come and why?
After doing some research, I discovered that more than 8 billion kilograms of plastic waste ends up in our seas and oceans every year. Unfortunately, I'm not much of a swimmer, so cleaning up oceans is beyond me. Fortunately, other people are already actively working on this - The Ocean Cleanup.
However, 80% of that 8 billion ends up there via rivers, which makes sense since all the water flows to the sea. So I decided to tackle the problem closer to the source and clean up the waste before it gets into the sea. In early 2018 we moved to Düsseldorf with the family and there I contacted a local organization and we decided to tackle the Rhine together.
Our ambition was to involve 3 countries, and organize clean-up actions in 9 cities along the Rhine on 1 day with local partners. In reality, more than 10,000 people, 59 cities in 5 countries participated! The press coverage was overwhelming. Just as something changed with me at the first 10-minute cleanup, something changed again, but this time with 10,000 people, and with everyone who noticed it in the newspaper and on television. I felt for the first time the connecting power of the river and decided to take this to the next level.... Today we are coordinating River Cleanups along 10 rivers in Europe and aim to activate more than 20,000 people.
3) What was the most memorable cleanup so far?
Actually, I always look forward most to the next one. It gives so much energy when you see people getting excited and not wanting to stop once they have started. So I already know that the next one will be fun! Hint :)
The Strasbourg Cleanup with 20 MEPs the day before the European Parliament vote on single-use plastics was also something special. A vote that, by the way, was approved by the parliament by a large majority.
But the cleanup that stayed with me the most was the one on January 27 of this year.... That was the action for my inspiration and now good friend Jean-Paul Meus in Estonia. Namely, he was celebrating his 1000th cleanup. After a night of "celebrating," we got him out of bed at 7:00 a.m. and tackled the snowy streets of Tallin. With this action, we suddenly boosted the international "10 minutes a day challenge" in more than 30 countries.
4) What is your ultimate reason or tip for encouraging neighbors, friends, family to clean up?
My ultimate goal is to get people to take action!I Everyone has seen the images of the whales, turtles and birds with plastics in their stomachs.... But in the meantime, we know that we all eat - on average - the equivalent of one credit card worth of plastic per week! I don't know if it's harmful, but it certainly can't be healthy. A cleanup opens your eyes, sets something in motion.... And is a first small step toward taking better care of our planet. The more people we can reach, the faster we can create change.
5) What can we expect of World Cleanup Day?
Our goal this year on September 21, 2019 is to encourage citizens, schools, associations and companies at at least 50 locations along Scheldt & Meuse (and their tributaries) to clean up a piece of bank, footpath or waterfront spot. For this we are working closely with the people of World Cleanup Day Belgium, JCI, Zero Plastic Rivers, 10minutedadaybe, Stormkop and many others! With the help of our partners, we also want to provide the equipment for free so that everyone can participate!
We are aiming for 10,000 participants in Belgium, the Netherlands and France and 20,000 internationally. With major actions along the Rhine (currently 63 cleanups already registered), Drin (3,000 people), Volga (1,000) and Danube, this ambition will undoubtedly be met or exceeded. Starting next year, we will also become active outside Europe. Thus, there are already contacts with India, Asia, Africa and America....