Tbilisi volunteers join global clean-up

Georgia’s public sector employees are joining forces with community volunteers today to begin a three-day clean-up initiative in capital city Tbilisi as part of the global ‘Clean Up the World’ campaign.

Volunteers started their cleaning action at Lisi Lake, a popular destination for exercise or festival-goers, where they collected waste in special bags. In the first several hours of the campaign about a hundred black bags were filled with rubbish.

The clean-up action on the Lisi Lake was the sixth time Georgia took part in the global initiative. Photo by Ministry of Environment of Georgia/Facebook.

Georgia’s Environment Minister Gigla Agulashvili as well as employees from the Tbilisi City Hall, the Ministry of Defence and Solid Waste Management Company all took part in today’s clean-up.

The ‘Clean Up Georgia’ effort was being led by a group of non-governmental organisations, supported by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection and financially supported by the Swedish government.

The clean-up effort was joined by Sweden's Ambassador to Georgia and Armenia Martina Quick. Photo by Ministry of Environment of Georgia/Facebook.

The campaign was taking place for the sixth time in Georgia and included all self-governing cities and municipalities of the country. The initiative was scheduled to move to other areas of Tbilisi for the remaining two days.

Georgia joined the ‘Clean Up the World’ campaign – established by the United Nations Environment Programme - in 2010. Since then it has been a regular participant of the initiative alongside 133 other countries.