Let's Do It! Clean World News
April 2017

Activists in India Uniting Against the Waste Problem

Jodie Underhill (right) settled in India, waging a war against trash. She’s now called the “Garbage Girl” because of her passion towards reducing waste pollution.

Yes, India is big and has a major problem regarding waste. The Ganges, the biggest river in India, has been rated D, which means excessive pollution according to the Uttarakhand Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board (UEPPCB). One of the reasons is the waste pumped into it. The population growth is fast and with 1.2 billion people living there, it is the second most-populated country after China. But did you know that India has the most NGOs in the world? According to International Guide Star there are 3.3 million. Today we're introducing you Raghuvir Das, Jodie Underhill and Gaurav Sharma – three activists taking some serious action against the waste problem in India, each in their own way. Read their story here. 

Young Leader From Cyprus Sharing His Enthusiasm

Andreas Angeli (in the centre): “My jobs may fill my wallet but Let’s Do It! fills my heart, my soul, this is what it is for me.” Photo: Let’s Do It!

Here’s someone else we’d like you to meet! A year ago, a young Cypriot named Andreas Angeli had no idea about Let’s Do It!. After working several years in Scotland, he decided to return to his home island on the Mediterranean Sea. He attended a conference about environmental issues in Cyprus, where he met with the Commissioner of Environment. Only two weeks after that meeting, he got a call from that person asking him to run the local Let’s Do It! campaign. He simply said yes! That’s how his journey for a cleaner planet begun. Click here to read the full article.

Estonia Leading a World Cleanup Day — Staying Stubborn and Uniting People

Estonians find their song festivals pretty epic (they are massive!), and by epic, amongst other things, we mean something you don’t hastily compare other things to. Let’s Do It! World, born in Estonia in 2008 is surely epic enough to be compared to our song festivals. XXVI Estonian Song Festival in 2014. Photo by Ivo Kruusamägi.

As Let’s Do It! is fighting with the planet’s trash problem, it makes sense that it is often referred to as an environmental movement. Rainer Nõlvak somewhat disagrees: ‘Let’s Do It! is not an environmental movement. We are about changing the behaviour of people.’ The latter is essential for reaching the point where it’s possible to keep the world clean after the clean-ups. This means a lot of educating, lobbying, programming, (re)designing, networking… On the road towards that goal, Let’s Do It! refrains from shaming and shocking, believing in empowering instead, using waste mapping data, engaging professionals of various fields and giving a platform for people to share their experiences. Here's a story about the history, the today and the tomorrow of Let’s Do It! World.

Mapping Global Pollution And Natural Disasters Through AI And News Images

Illegal waste. Photo: ISWA.

Bringing Let’s Do It! as an example of a social good organization using a constantly updated map of illegal trash sites, The Forbes writer Kalev Leetaru asks: "Why stop just at trash on the ground? Thinking about environmental pollution more broadly, air pollution, especially thick choking smog, is relatively easy to recognize and given that the outdoor sky features as a backdrop in so much of the world’s imagery being generated each day, one could essentially perform a very primitive realtime assessment of smog intensity each day by simply scanning the images being shared from each city in the world." What would this sort of solutions look like, how would they work? Find some possible answers here. 

The Cora Ball: Microfiber-Catching Laundry Ball

The Cora Ball in action

Large proportion of microplastic fibers contained in the marine environment are derived from sewage as a consequence of washing our clothes. Everyone who wears and washes clothes is part of this pollution. Everyone who eats or breathes could suffer the consequences. The Cora Ball was designed by a team of ocean scientists, educators and protectors at Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean as a human-scale, consumer solution to this very large problem of tiny pieces. The project just had a successful Kickstarter Campaign and is now moving into production. Find out more about the Cora Ball here. 

Why Balloon Releases Need to Stop

This particular pile of trash contained of 9 balloons: 6 latex, 1 mylar, 2 plastic. Photo: Balloons Blow Facebook

“Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon,” beloved character Winnie-the-Pooh has famously stated. Sorry, Pooh! Having a balloon might be entertaining for a while, but they are creating mass aerial litter. Residents of Rhode Island, for example, have joined in the call to ban balloon releases for environmental reasons. After picking up nearly 2,200 downed balloons along the coastline in the past several years, the Clean Ocean Access group is petitioning the city of Newport to stop allowing the practice altogether. While a floating mass of colorful balloons may look beautiful and celebratory for a few short minutes, it can be deadly for wildlife for many years to come. Read the full story here. 

Upcoming events

06.05.2017 Let’s Do It! Estonia

06.05.2017 Let’s Do It! Iceland

15.09.2018 World Cleanup Day

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