Get a group of friends or neighbours together and start cleaning! You can organise a volunteer event to clean up waste from the city’s public areas, i.e. forests, roadsides, parks and beaches. Cleaning private plots and yard areas is not part of the voluntary spring cleaning events.
The idea is to collect non-natural waste, not organic material such as leaves and twigs. Volunteers are provided with litter pickers and refuse sacks.
If you want to organise a cleaning event, please notify us no later than 8 days before the scheduled date at puistotalkoot.hel.fi/en.
Volunteer cleaning events can be organised during snow-free times, not just in the spring. The City of Helsinki has been supporting litter picking campaigns for almost 40 years, since 1984.
Yle’s national Miljoona roskapussia (‘Million bags of litter’) campaign starting on 15 April
This spring, all Finnish people are once again urged to pick up a million bags of litter. The number of bags of litter collected will be shown in a real-time counter on the yle.fi/miljoonaroskapussia web page. Anyone can take part in the campaign and no separate registration is required.
The campaign was held for the first time in the spring of 2023, with more than 200,000 bags of litter entered into the counter. The campaign involves more than 140 cities and municipalities, several operators related to environmental wellbeing, and the Finnish National Agency for Education. The City of Helsinki will also take part, for the second time now.
How to take part in the campaign:
- Get a litter picker, gloves and an empty bag.
- Go outside – by yourself or with a group.
- Pick up litter from the environment.
- Take the litter you have picked up to a mixed waste collection point when your bag is full.
- Enter the number of bags of litter you have picked up to the information of your location at yle.fi/miljoonaroskapussia.
- Challenge your friends to take part!