Let's Do It 2008
Let's do it 2008 (Estonian: Teeme ära 2008) was a large campaign on 3 May 2008, to activate civic society in Estonia in an effort to cleanup the country from litter. It was organized by Let's Do It! World.[1]
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. 10656 locations were recorded in total. Cultural figures, such as Jaan Tätte and Jarek Kasar , helped promote the campaign by participating in televised advertisements. Over 500 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. [2]
Cleanup
Over 50000 people, or approximately 4% of the population of 1.3 million, participated in the cleanup of the forests and countryside. More than 10000 tons of garbage were removed from the country's forest in about 5 hours for less than 500000 euros. Under normal circumstances it would have taken the government 3 years and 22.5 million euros to accomplish a similar feat.[3][4]
The organization team consisted of Rainer Nõlvak, Toomas Trapido, Kadri Allikmäe, Henri Laupmaa, Ahti Heinla, Eva Truuverk, Tiina Urm, Anneli Ohvril and Jüri-Ott Salm.
Spreading the model
Shortly after the event, Latvia organized a similar nation-wide event every year (Latvian: Lielā talka). In September 2008, 40000 volunteers participated. Lithuania and Latvia organized larger scale events in April 2009 with 150000 volunteers. On 17 April 2010 a similar event was organized in Slovenia - Let's Clean Slovenia in One Day! (Očistimo slovenijo v enem dnevu) with 12% of population participating (250000 volunteers). And again in 2012: Let's Clean Slovenia 2012. In 2017, the United States held their first
Worldwide cleanup events eventually led to the international organization Let's Do It! World, and the creation of a unified World Cleanup Day program, and the inaugural World Cleanup Day event in 2018.
See also
- Earth Day
- Greenpeace
- National Cleanup Day
- The Ocean Cleanup
- Let's Do It! World
References
- ^ "Anti-garbage campaigners plan mass Internet-led clean up". Archived from the original on 2010-01-29. Retrieved 2012-01-02.
- ^ "Teeme Ära 2008". YouTube.
- ^ "Project "Let's Do it 2008"" (PDF). Retrieved 2020-09-06.
- ^ "Cum a fost Let's do it 2008 – Estonia" (in Estonian). 2010-02-09. Retrieved 2020-09-06.