Over 16 mln people have joined World Cleanup Day

TALLINN - In total 122 countries and at least 16.8 million volunteers had joined the World Cleanup Day initiative by 2 p.m. Estonian time, organizers said.

Whilst 92 countries are in the midst of their cleanup action, by now more than 30 countries have completed theirs: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, China, Fiji, Indonesia, India, Japan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The exact number of participants in the cleanup action will be ascertained by 350 workers at the World Cleanup Day headquarters at Tallinn University, who take turns making phone calls to the initiative's state managers. Current data lists 45 countries with 16.8 participants. Data from many countries has yet to reach the headquarters and 20 countries are only just starting the cleanup action.

World Cleanup Day kicked off at 11 p.m. Estonian time on Friday in the Pacific island nations of Vanuatu and Fiji. At 1 a.m., New Zealand joined the initiative where an estimated number of 50,000 people cleaned up litter in Auckland, Wellington and other regions.

The global television broadcast on the initiative was presented from the midst of the events in New Zealand by Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR) talk show host Mihkel Karmas who afterwards immediately left for Hawaii where the initiative ends in the early hours on Monday.