Nationwide Clean-Up Campaign in Estonia

Estonian Clean-Up Campaign

Giving instructions

On May 2nd, 2008 Internet newsfeeds asked: What do Estonian Tech Millionaires do for Fun? The answer was: They find and digitally map 10,000 tons of garbage. Then they get 40,000 of their closest friends to clean it all up in one single day.

On Saturday, May 3rd all of that came into reality - Estonians joined forces in an effort to clean up the 45,227 km

Collecting garbage

Clean-up campaign "Teeme ära!" (Let's Do It!) was led by one of the Skype inventors, Ahti Heinla, and the founder of Microlink and Delfi, Rainer Nõlvak, who used own-created innovative software based on Google Earth, positioning software for mobile phones and mobile phones with GPS to map and take images of illegal garbage dumps across the country. With the help of volunteers, they mapped more than 3000 illegal waste dumping sites. At the end of May 3rd a huge part of it was gathered and transported to waste collection centers.

Cleaning forest

”Although a massive amount – 10,000 tons, of garbage will be moved in one single day, the real mission of the project is to shift the population's mindset to a more environmentally-conscious way of thinking,” said Rainer Nõlvak before a Big Clean-Up Day.

May 3rd proved those efforts were not in vain. People from different nationalities - Estonians, Russians, Frenches, Japaneses, Lithuanians, Americans and Germans scoured fields, streets, forests and riverbanks. Teachers, directors, managers, journalists, museum workers, students and kids worked together with the same goal - to make our home cleaner and lovelier place.

"Teeme ära 2008" homepage

Reuters news

BBC report

Collecting garbage

Garbage truck

Trash by the road

Loading trash on truck

Photo credits: Maigi.
  • Maigi
My name is Mailis Laos. I'm a photographer and digital artist from Estonia. I love photography and digital art. Traveling, hiking, folk music and deep late night discussions with friends are among other things I enjoy a lot. And you can mess my head with thought-provoking poetry. You can find me on Instagram: maigidesign; contact: https://maigi.com/contact.

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Sophiesourit

May 06, 2008

Excellent...I'd like to see that more often everywhere... good shot

Maigi

May 05, 2008

Yes, it was a great day. Thanks, guys, for your comments!
Cristea, your Carpathian mountains are wonderful, definitely worth to care about. Wish I could visit one day. :)

Cathysbelleimage

May 05, 2008

Great movement, superbe effort! Thanks for sharing, Mailis! :O)

Emicristea

May 05, 2008

I am part of an ecological association, in Romania, too :)
We have some similar campaign in Carpathian mountains, every year.

Rebeccaosborn

May 05, 2008

wow -i agree, some great shots for environment

Seesea

May 05, 2008

Great work for environment!