5 questions to a sustainable startup: Beat the Butt
23/03/2022
We know that, just like us, there are hundreds of other projects wanting to do more for the planet. We went to find out more
The goal is to collect 1 million butts during Earth Week, from April 15 to 23.
To do the “World’s Largest Butt Cleaning” in Portugal – this is the challenge launched by activist The Trash Traveler (Andreas Noe) to celebrate Earth Day. Any person, association, company, parish, store, restaurant, university or school, from the north to the south of the country, can participate in the action by organizing cigarette butt collections in their communities.
The goal is to collect 1 million butts in one week, between April 15 and 23, as a way to raise awareness for climate action.
Participants can collect cigarette butts and drop them off at the organized activities or contact the organization to find out the nearest drop-off point. The butts can be delivered in person at the closing event, to be held at Parque das Nações (Lisbon) on April 23rd at 2pm, where all the collected material will be counted and displayed on the ground in an artistic way.
Record butt-picking
The initiative also comes to beat the numbers from 2021, when The Trash Traveler team managed to bring together in 2 months more than 600 people and 70 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in a collection of more than 1.1 million butts across the country.
“We look at what our community has achieved in 2021 (in two months) and want to achieve the same, i.e. collect 1 million cigarette butts in one week! It’s easy to start taking action for the planet if we start with a simple step, like picking up a cigarette butt. It’s a simple gesture that connects us to nature and leads us to the search for greater environmental solutions,” says Andreas, in a statement.
At project website you can find a map with all the registered cleaning actions – some of which will be attended by Andreas Noe, namely:
- April 18th, 6:30pm (Porto) – near São Bento Station
- April 19th, 5pm (Setúbal) – location to be announced
- April 20th, 7pm – 10pm (Lisbon) – Campo Grande, near the Science Faculty
- April 21st, 5pm (Costa da Caparica) – next to Barbas Restaurant
- April 22nd, 10am (Lisbon) – location to be announced
- April 23rd, 2pm (Lisbon) – closing action at Parque das Nações
The environmental awareness action has the support of 60 entities, including municipalities, NGOs, and other public and private entities.
She could have studied Meteorology and Oceanography but ended up going for Communication. And that's fine because if they don't get their weather predictions right, she wasn't the one who would change that. She started by looking for sustainable ideas and projects for her university, and since then, she has never stopped (who stops, really?). She loves to watch series, but she watches few because she is demanding. You don't need much to convince her to embrace new, "greener" habits and challenges.
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