On the third Saturday of September, together with millions of participants around the world, more than 14,000 Ukrainian schoolchildren united and cleansed the Earth of  54 tons of garbage, of which 38 tons of found secondary raw materials were recycled - these are the results of the participation of the youngest Ukrainians in the international action of the World Cleaning Day  World Cleanup Day 2020.

For additional motivation, competitions were organized among general secondary education institutions in 24 regions of Ukraine for the most active participants. Students cleaned the areas contaminated with garbage.

The winners of individual participants in the cleaning were:

• Support institution "Zinkiv specialized school of I-III degrees № 1 Zinkiv district council of Poltava region"
  
  

   

• Mykolayiv comprehensive school of I-II grades №64
  
  

   

• Municipal institution "Zaporizhzhya specialized boarding school of II-III degrees" Cossack Lyceum "of Zaporizhzhya regional council.
  
  

   

The top three schools included the schools where students removed the most garbage, handed over the most waste for recycling and whose students were the most active.

"We are sincerely happy to congratulate the winners and give them gifts. We would like to thank all the participants for their fruitful work and care for the environment, and the coordinators for their organization and their environmental responsibility. The result of the action is impressive and only proves that together we can make Ukraine clean and even more beautiful, "- commented Ksenia Renchkovska, head of the international youth movement School Recycling World in Ukraine.

Under the terms of the competition, the most active participants will receive diplomas and delicious gifts, and the top three schools-leaders won sets of bags-bags for school premises. Zhytomyr region became the most active region. It is followed by Zaporizhia, Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk.

A feature of this year's action was strict compliance with quarantine regulations.

"We followed all the rules and requirements, and the area was large enough that there was no crowd of children on one square meter. We received permission to clean up from the parents of all students. Gloves, protective masks - all taken with them. When there was a need, they wore them, when there was no need - children worked in the fresh air without them ", - commented the teacher-organizer support institution "Zinkiv specialized school of I-III degrees № 1" Angelova Valentina Vladimirovna.

During the cleaning, students did individual and family cleaning. Photos before and after were posted on social networks with  hashtags #seencatch #worldcleanupday #schoolrecyclingworld #letsdoitukraine.

"This is not the first eco-project for our school. We are always happy to join in cleaning our hometown. This time the initiative was supported by 74 participants. About 12 kilometers were covered during the action. The students were tired, but they were motivated by the result. The day of cleaning was remembered not only by garbage collection, but also by unexpected finds. Yes, students came across a pension certificate and passport. We appealed to journalists to find the owners. " - commented the coordinator of the action in the municipal institution "Zaporizhzhya specialized boarding school of II-III degrees" Cossack Lyceum "of the Zaporizhia regional council Anastasia Kosman.

The organizers of the competition are the International Youth Movement "School Recycling World" together with the All-Ukrainian Youth Movement "Let's do it Ukraine" with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science, the National Ecological and Naturalistic Center, PepsiCo Ukraine.

"Cleaning, such as during the action, is a guarantee of a clean environment. We urge everyone, regardless of age and geography, to go out to clean the areas not only on a certain day, but regularly. Support and develop a culture of cleanliness in Ukraine and abroad. And remember that even small individual and joint steps to preserve the environment contribute to great change in the future. " - Julia Markhel, coordinator of the World Cleaning Day in Ukraine, President of "Let's do it Ukraine".