Community Clean-ups

Community Clean-ups
Bringing people together & creating cleaner spaces

By Larisa Birthwright, 16 June 2026

In this article, Travelife for Accommodation explores some of the international organisations dedicated to supporting communities with their clean-up efforts as well as tips for organising a successful community clean-up event.

Litter can occur in communities for a variety of reasons, usually due to improper discarding or a lack of waste management facilities for businesses, residents, and visitors.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) states that ‘Cigarette butts, whose filters contain tiny plastic fibres, are the most common type of plastic waste found in the environment’. In addition to this, according to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), around 4.5 TRILLION cigarette butts that end up in nature each year. It is the most common litter type picked up during World Cleanup Day events.

Whether you are an individual or a business, everyone can play a part in keeping their communities clean.

By participating in clean-ups, communities can build a sense of ownership and pride in their local area, while creating immediate positive environmental benefits and helping to encourage longer-term behavioural change.

Community clean-ups are usually organised by local charities but often take place through the efforts of individuals and businesses within a local area. These events may take place several times a year or be organised as an annual awareness campaign such as on World Cleanup Day, which usually takes place in mid-September.

Top Tips for Organising a Local Clean-up

If you are thinking about organising a local clean-up day, here are some of our top tips.

Research local and international organisations

There may be organisations dedicated to community clean-ups in your area, including international and national non-governmental organisations (NGOs), environmental charities, local authorities and community groups. They can often help with securing resources such as gloves, litter grabbers, bins, collection and health and safety risk assessments. Sometimes, you may need to seek permission from your local municipality about the area(s) you wish to clean. If you cannot establish contact or they cannot assist you, think about creating a group of volunteers within your community to participate in the event. Social media and word of mouth are great tools to help you generate interest and volunteers too.

Research where the collected waste will go and whether suitable facilities exist to recycle as much of it as possible. You should also identify approved disposal routes for hazardous materials such as medical waste, paints, solvents, and chemicals. You will also need to find out if these facilities will collect it for you if you come across any hazardous materials as well as a collection/drop off of the items that need to go to the recycling centre or landfill.

Adopt an area and research your site

Depending on the size of your community you may wish to adopt and focus on a particular area for your clean-up. For example, this could be your most popular beach, park, river or mountain trail. If there are several places, perhaps multiple coordinated clean-ups can take place across a day or week. The more volunteers and resources you have the more feasible multiple or large-scale cleaning can occur. But for your first community clean, you may wish to start with a more manageable area.

Take a look at your chosen area(s) and figure out what types of litter are being discarded there: this will help you decide what equipment is needed to safely collect and dispose of it after your event and also brief the participants of any hazards they should be aware of.

Gather your resources and schedule a date

There are a number of supplies you might need on the day for you and your volunteers to collect waste safely and effectively. The following items are just some of the tools that you may need to source:

high-visibility jackets
litter grabbers/pickers
reusable gloves
heavy-duty waste bags
weighing scales
data recording sheets
Sealable sharps containers

Find out if any of the organisations or businesses you identified in your initial research can supply these items.

Once you have your date and location, promote it to potential volunteers and let them know the details and anything they need to bring and do on the day.

Other important things to consider when preparing

Time of day and duration

If you are doing a mountain trail you’ll typically want to complete your clean-up in the hours of daylight so that visibility is better

Weather conditions

Check forecasts for storms, heavy rain, strong winds, or poor visibility.

Tidal conditions

Will it be low or high tide.

Age group

It’s great to get everyone involved, even children. However, if your risk assessment identifies significant hazards, participation may need to be restricted to adults or require parental consent and appropriate supervision.

Health and Safety

Ensure there is a first aid kit or medical assistance on hand.

Cleaning Station

Some materials can be reused or recycled but may be heavily soiled in mud or sand. A small cleaning station for any items that need it may be useful to have.

Refreshments and Shelter

Ensure there is appriate provisions for participant such as refreshments and shelter.

On the day

It’s a good idea to have a short briefing with your volunteers and let them know any important information i.e. health and safety aspects, where to place specific types of waste, any specific data that needs to be recorded, whom to contact if they have any queries etc.

This is also an opportunity for you to take photos and thank your volunteers for helping.

Once you’ve collected all of your waste, what next?

You organise your event and successfully collect several bags of waste, but then what?

Start by identifying the most common types of litter collected and place them into specific areas/zones. This might include categories like cigarette butts, wet wipes, fishing materials, metal, plastics, or drink-related litter such as plastic or glass bottles and caps.

Next, consider the likely sources of the litter. For example, has it been incorrectly disposed of by visitors, escaped from overflowing bins, scattered by wildlife scavenging through waste containers, generated by fishing activities, or dumped through fly-tipping?

You should also assess which materials can be recycled locally and whether any collected items can be reused.

Lastly, once you have analysed the data collected and consider what actions are needed, you may wish to advise the local municipality that:

there are infrequent refuse collections.
bins do not hold the volume of waste collected.
bins do not prevent wildlife from scavenging in the bins.
insufficient provisions of appropriate information to visitors and businesses about the disposal of their waste needs to be improved.
a collection bank for glass and plastic needs to be introduced.

Whilst community clean-ups focus on removing litter, they also provide valuable information about the sources of waste and the opportunities to improve local waste management in your community.

As well as that, there are a number of long-term positive outcomes it creates for all involved, whether living or visiting your community. The more you do, the easier it becomes and, with time the less likely you will need to do it as everyone has worked together to produce less litter and dispose of it correctly.

For more helpful tips visit the World Clean Up Day website.