‘Clean and Green’ campaign in Blagoevgrad wants to bring communities together

The campaign calls on citizen volunteers to help pick up trash from the city’s parks and prominent public spaces

Officials in the Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, have announced a new campaign, calling on citizens to volunteer and take part in cleaning the city. The campaign is called ‘Clean and Green Blagoevgrad! It is up to us’ and it aims to bring the city’s community together.

After a long hiatus, Mayor Ilko Stoyanov and his team want to restart the initiative and this year it will pass under the patronage of Deputy Prime Minister for Climate Change and Minister of the Environment and Water, Borislav Sandov.

The campaign is set to start on 14 May at 10:00 AM, at Narodni Buditeli Square in the city, with Mayor Stoyanov and Minister Sandov both in attendance. There, citizen volunteers will be able to pick up cleaning equipment as well as some gifts provided by ‘Eco Partners’, a recycling company and partner of the initiative.

Apart from cleaning equipment, the city will put up tents that will help coordinate efforts in key locations around the city, like parks and universities.

Making your hometown a better place to live in

‘Clean and Green Blagoevgrad! It is up to us’ is a campaign promoting separate waste collection and recycling, that aims to unite Blagoevgrad’s citizens in a shared cause – turning the city into a better and cleaner place to live.

Local authorities and ‘Eco Partners’ will provide all the necessary cleaning equipment like gloves and bags. The collected trash will then be carried to the nearest general or recycled waste bins. After that, ‘Eco Partners' and the municipal trash collecting company will take care of it.

Furthermore, the city also called on people to show solidarity with the campaign and environmental protection efforts. They asked people to set aside two hours on Saturday to clean the area around their homes. People can send before and after photos to the municipality at chistizelenblagoevgrad@gmail.com.

These will then be published on Blagoevgrad’s social media channels and on the municipal website.