HISTORY OF THE NETWORK
Since 2017, CleanupMontenegro is bringing together organizations and communities across Montenegro to join the International Coastal Cleanup Day. In 2021, the network started to conduct BreakFreeFromPlastic Brand Audits. Clean-ups and Brand Audits are organized in multiple locations throughout Montenegro – up to 18 so far simultaneously -, which makes it the largest, annual, volunteer effort tackling the problem of waste in our country. One of the focuses of the event is to raise awareness of single-use plastic production and consumption and prevent littering.
Our current activities are strengthening the CleanUp Montenegro network to combat pollution in Montenegro, formalizing agreements among participants, conducting advocacy campaigns, promoting education workshops for children and organizing trainings on Zero Waste and waste management knowledge while addressing local waste management issues with our members. Dialogues between civil society and authorities will promote territorial accountability, improve waste management practices, encourage better public waste management, particularly within institutions, and seek solutions for waste in biodiversity areas.
Additionally, CleanupMontegro launched in Q2 2024 two calls for micro-projects for Montenegrin CSOs, with funding allocated to pilot projects to seek co-funding for more permanent solutions.
WHAT IS THE INTERNATIONAL CLEANUP DAY?
It is the world’s largest, annual, volunteer effort tackling the problem of waste for our seas and waterways. The focus of the International Coastal Cleanup Day in Montenegro is waste reduction, in particular of single use plastics.
As you may already know, plastics are highly detrimental to human health, wildlife, and the natural environment.
As a fossil fuel product, plastic is pollution from the moment the oil or gas is extracted, and it continues to cause pollution throughout its lifecycle.
Plastic exacerbates climate change, emits greenhouse gas emissions. It has even found its way to our bodies: We ingest at least 74,000 microplastic particles a year from the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat.
We can’t recycle our way out of the plastic pollution crisis: Only 9% of all plastic ever discarded since 1950 has actually been recycled.
Our individual choices matter. By choosing to reuse, we’re saving millions of pieces of plastic and sending a message to the rest of the world that the solutions to plastic pollution and the climate crisis are there – and together we can keep our environment, oceans, and communities plastic-free for the future.
WHAT IS A BRAND AUDIT?
Break free from Plastic’s Brand audit is a citizen science initiative that involves counting and documenting the brands found on plastic waste collected at a clean-up to help identify the companies responsible for plastic pollution.
To truly solve the plastic problem, we are calling on the world’s and national top polluting companies to stop producing so much unnecessary single-use plastic in the first place.
To find out who the top polluting companies are, we need your help to record data on plastic waste in your community.
REPORTS AND INFOGRAPHICS OF OUR PAST EVENTS:
INTERNATIONAL CLEANUP DAY PODGORICA 2023
