Clean Up Barbados will be held on Saturday, 18 March 2023. This is the local branch of the global initiative “World Clean Up Day”. We focus on all areas of Barbados, from beaches to inland – all parishes! Clean Up Barbados keeps Barbados beautiful while highlighting the serious problem of illegal dumping and its negative environmental impact to our small island nation. We also take this time to showcase opportunities for recycling and highlight the physical and mental health impacts of littering.

During the cleanup, thousands of pounds of litter are removed from nature by people like you. This includes tyres, car parts, mattresses, fridges, TVs and large appliances, scrap wood and metal, and of course plastic and trash. The Future Centre Trust helps groups to have the tools on hand needed for their location. Some of the hardest hit areas are our gullies, important water courses as well as habitat for wildlife and recreation. In the 13 events since the first Clean Up Barbados held in 2009, volunteers have cleaned a total of 314,958 pounds of illegally dumped material and litter from Barbados’ environment. This support is heart-warming as hundreds of volunteers join us to perform a massive cleanup across every inch of Barbados, from gullies to reefs. We see communities who continue to keep their surroundings clean after they experience how much better they feel to be surrounded by the beautiful results.

You can support Clean Up Barbados in many ways:

• Sponsorship donations provide funds for marketing of the event and its message to the public through multiple channels, and for any resources beyond those supplied through donations which are necessary to achieve the cleanup,
• Donations in kind of materials and loan of tools and equipment provide essential resources used by volunteers in the cleanup effort,
• Donations of prizes that are awarded to individuals and teams in several categories based on the actual cleanup results achieved,
• Organize your own team and register as a school, church, company, or community group to join the clean up, and (optionally) purchase event t-shirts for your team,
• Register as an individual to be assigned to and participate with a team of your choice.

Clean Up Barbados is a volunteer opportunity which can provide great satisfaction to yourself and your team. Volunteering is known to be a great way to connect with others and improve social ties, positively engage with others and be active within the community, gain experience with new challenges, raise awareness of social and environmental issues, interact with different cultures, contribute to social change, as well as to develop professional networks. We are all ready to get out and do something positive!

Clean Up Barbados operates primarily through the efforts of Group Leaders, who each pull together a group of volunteers from their church, community, company, industry, or social group. Functions that Group Leaders perform include, all through coordination with the Project Team: 1) distribution of information and instructions, gloves, bags and tools, to all members in their group, 2) provision of adequate resources appropriate to their designated clean up location, 3) and on the day of the event, to arrange for removal of collected materials. 

During the cleanup, thousands of pounds of litter are removed from nature by people like you. This includes tyres, car parts, mattresses, fridges, TVs and large appliances, scrap wood and metal, and of course plastic and other litter. Needless to say, it’s bittersweet. On one hand we’re amazed by the efforts of hundreds of people who want to save Barbados, but on the other hand, it’s gut-wrenching to see the deep impact of illegal dumping. Some of the hardest hit areas of Barbados are our gullies which are a source of drinking water, habitat for wildlife, and need to be preserved for our nation’s physical and mental wellbeing.