Karasu River cleaned as part World Cleanup Day international campaign

The "Association of Ecologists" together with the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the ALE "Coalition for the Green Economy and the Development of G-Global", the Environmental Movement "We are for a Clean Country" and the organisation "Zhasyl Qalqan" are leading the World Clean-up Day 2022 campaign in Kazakhstan this year.

The clean-up gathered around 100 volunteers - Kazakh activists and diplomats - in Astana, who collected plastic waste along the Karasu river banks. The local authorities provided all the necessary equipment and made sure the waste was segregated at once to facilitate further processing of garbage.

Thanking everyone who joined, the EU Ambassador Kestutis Jankauskas underlined the importance of Kazakhstan being part of this worldwide activity which unites us all in fighting pollution: "World Clean-up Day not only helps to make our nature cleaner, but draws attention to growing problems of environmental pollution with plastic. Let's collect the garbage, let's leave nature as clean as we want to find it, let's segregate garbage and recycle it if we want to drink clean water and to breathe clean air, in order to preserve our world for future generations. European Union is ready to share with Kazakhstan its best technologies of recycling and circular economy. Let's keep Kazakhstan clean!"

Background information. #EUBeachCleanup is an international campaign that encourages people over the world to clean coastal areas and beaches from garbage and waste. The campaign contributes to several Sustainable Development Goals, namely to sustainable consumption and production patterns (SDG 12), to conservation and sustainably use of the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development (SDG 14), and to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss (SDG 15). In line with the upcoming UN Biodiversity Conference in October, this year's global #EUBeachCleanup campaign will focus on the theme of marine biodiversity. The EU countries call all concerned citizens and guests of the capital to join the event. World Clean-up Day is one of the biggest civic movements of our time, uniting 180 countries across the world for a cleaner planet. On this day volunteers worldwide come together to rid our planet of garbage - cleaning up litter and mismanaged waste from our beaches, rivers, forests, and streets. This world-changing idea began in the small country of Estonia, in 2008. 50,000 people united to clean up the entire country in just five hours. In 2019, 21.2 million environment heroes joined in on an epic 36-hour green wave of clean-ups across the globe - beginning in New Zealand and traveling around the world before ending in Hawaii.