By Ileana Nicholson
Every year, thousands of volunteers across Cyprus put on gloves, grab trash bags and head out to our beaches, forests, parks and neighborhoods. Collecting tons of waste each time, they prove that civil society possesses both a strong sense of responsibility and environmental awareness. However, if we focus solely on the numbers – such as the more than 350,000 participants mobilised to date by the Let’s Do It! Cyprus campaign – we miss the deeper meaning of this effort.
Our goal is not to become more efficient at collecting trash, but to raise a generation that won’t litter in the first place.
This shift in mindset isn’t achieved through abstract proclamations, but through lived experience. When a child picks up a plastic bottle and witnesses their immediate surroundings transform, the lesson takes root.
This educational approach has been embraced for decades in countries like Japan and across the Nordic region, where maintaining public spaces is woven into school life to instill a sense of shared civic duty. If we invest systematically in our children today, a 30-year-old citizen in 2050 won’t need to be lectured on respecting nature. Illegally dumping construction debris in a forest or leaving plastic on a beach will simply be unthinkable.
At the same time, we must be realistic: volunteer cleanups are not a panacea. The uncontrolled dumping of bulky waste and construction debris remains widespread. We cannot continuously rely on volunteers to fill structural gaps, nor can we expect local communities to tackle unchecked behaviour without adequate resources or enforcement. For this reason, the state must move beyond ad-hoc support toward institutionalised funding for environmental NGOs that deliver measurable results. Likewise, the business community must stop viewing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a brief PR exercise and start treating it as a strategic, long-term investment in our communities.
Building a new environmental culture requires a unified, cross-sectoral alliance. The state, local municipalities, educational institutions, businesses and civil society must act in unison. When schools incorporate hands-on environmental education, municipalities provide the necessary waste infrastructure, and businesses contribute meaningful support, volunteerism evolves from a yearly event into a catalyst for lasting social change.
Public space does not belong to “no one”. It belongs to all of us. This year’s Cleanup Week (October 26–November 2, 2026) offers another vital opportunity to demonstrate that environmental stewardship isn’t an abstract ideal, but a daily choice. Ultimately, the future of our environment is truly in our hands #stoxerisou.
Ileana Nicholson is executive director of the NGO Together Cyprus