In 2019, the largest national volunteer initiative - "Let's Clean Bulgaria Together", expands its scope with new opportunities to improve the environment we live in.

On September 14, volunteers across the country will be able not only to clean polluted areas but also to initiate other good deeds, renovating playgrounds and gardens, saving destroyed forests or planting new ones, repairing tourist plaques and shelters, painting benches and giving other good examples to make Bulgaria not only cleaner but also more beautiful.

After in 2018 it showed record-breaking activity since its very start and once again placеd Bulgaria in a leading position among the best volunteer practices in nature care, this year, "Let's Clean Bulgaria Together" will launch the World Cleanup Day 2019.

"We are happy that as one of the best performers in the campaign, the hundreds of thousands of volunteers in Bulgaria will open on September 14 the second edition of the World Cleanup Day, which will end in Hawaii on the night of September 21. We believe we all bring together the change our planet needs", said Anna Gril, Director of Europe for the global civic movement "Let's Do It World." At the national meeting of the campaign partners, she noted that 159 countries took part in the initiative last year and collected 90,000 tons of trash, equivalent to 200 fully loaded Boeing 747 airplanes.

For a second year, within the framework of the meeting, bTV Media Group awarded 50 of the most successful and loyal partners of the campaign "Let's Clean Bulgaria Together", including national and regional institutions, business organizations and prominent volunteers. In the presence of the hosts of the event, Anton Hekimyan, Aleksandra Krasteva, Florina Ivanova and Valeri Genov, some of the most prominent Bulgarian athletes, actors and popular faces of the television, gave awards to the record-setters in last year's event. Among them are the regions that brought together the largest number of non-governmental and business organizations and institutions in 2018 - Varna, Burgas and Rousse, as well as the regional cities of Pleven, Blagoevgrad and Silistra, achieving an absolute record on the regional level in terms of number of volunteers for the cause. The awards for the most cleaned places and activities on the map were given to: RIEW - Shumen, Sofia District and the districts of Targovishte, Plovdiv and Razgrad. The regional administrations of Pazardzhik, Veliko Tarnovo and Haskovo were awarded for the successful participation in the campaign of all municipalities in their territories.

The recognition for the largest scale operation at over 2200 meters above sea level was given to the mountain sports complex "Belmeken", the Yakoruda Municipality and the State Forestry - Yakoruda, which together with the national biathlon team, the Russian national biathlon team and the Enduru Club - Kostenets, cleaned the recreation and sports areas around the Belmeken Dam.

The awards for the largest number of volunteers in a protected area were given to the "Levski" volleyball team, representatives of Fitness Pulse, Endava and VMWare, as well as the hosts from the Vitosha Nature Park. bTV Media Group also awarded the HomeMax team, that became ambassadors of the good example, taking care of restoring the botanical promenade for the blind in the Dendrarium area.

Also awarded for the dedication to the cause was the Coca-Cola system which, within the grand cleanup, organized and carried out 26 operations, the largest of which was jointly with the Sofia Municipality and Ecopack Bulgaria.

Awards for sustainable volunteer activity were given to TELUS International and the Southwest State Forestry Company, Nikola Rahnev and Gorata.Bg, that planted more than 15,000 saplings in the Studena dam area, as well as the volunteers who cleaned the Kailaka Park in Pleven. Some of the longest-standing partners of the initiative were awarded, such as ESRI Bulgaria, the Enterprise for Management of Environmental Protection Activities (EMEPA) and Metroreklama.

Also awarded were RISOV - Pazardzhik and the hosts of the extreme action for cleaning 12 tons of garbage from the Batak Dam with kayaks and boats – "Eco Camp Batak".

The team of "Kaufland Bulgaria" was honored for cleaning the record 30 tons of garbage from the dump in the region of the village of Slokoshtitsa, Kyustendil area.

A special award was given to Nayden Nedev from Sub Diving, as well as to representatives of the Dive Club Barracuda, who, with more than 50 divers, carried out deep-sea activities in the area of ​​Sozopol, Varna and Bourgas Bay.

Also awarded within the meeting were the best hosts who provided the logistics of key volunteer activities in the country - Sofia Inspectorate and the municipalities of Botevgrad, Samokov, Elin Pelin, Batak and Yakoruda.

Since its launch, "Let's Clean Bulgaria Together" has received the support of over 2,050,000 volunteers from across the country. For the same period, nearly 90,000 tons of waste was collected according to information from the Ministry of the Environment and Waters, and more than 13,700 unregulated dumps and polluted areas have disappeared from the map of Bulgaria.

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