The World is Cleaning Up – We Are Taking Part: Employees Clean-Up Campaign of the Companies of Schwarz Group

Every year in September is World Cleanup Day: Millions of volunteers and activists all around the world come together as part of the campaign to work towards a cleaner environment. Employees of the companies of Schwarz Group are also participating in the campaign – now for the fourth time in a row: Together, the participants collected waste scattered in public places around Heilbronn and Neckarsulm as part of the jointly organized clean-up campaign.

Plastic bags in the bushes, fast-food packaging on the roadside, outdated election posters or illegally disposed of car tires – the list of the waste collected just from last year's clean-up campaign is as long as it is strange. High time to tackle waste once again! Also in this year, the sustainability team of Schwarz Corporate Communication invited their colleagues to a joint waste collection campaign. Collecting took place in small teams in and around Heilbronn and Neckarsulm. True to the motto “Less pollution – more community”, in addition to the environmental protection, team spirit was a top priority. The dismal bottom line: in xx hours, around XX participants collected more than XX tons of waste. The good news is that thanks to everyone's support, this trash is no longer polluting our environment.

From Collection to Sorting to Recycling
Whilst the employees were diligently collecting and cleaning up, PreZero ensured professional sorting and subsequent recycling of the collected waste: As in the year before, the environmental division of the companies of Schwarz Group provided a separate recycling point in Neckarsulm where the participants could drop off the waste they collected.

The careless throwing away of waste is unfortunately still far too often considered to be a trivial and minor issue. The clean-up campaign is intended to show: Each one of us is carrying the responsibility for the environment, both in large and small ways. Our throwaway society is a thing of the past: Clean waste separation and thus the possibility of reusability of recyclable materials are essential prerequisites for efficient recycling – making sure that sufficient resources and raw materials are also available for future generations. Together, the companies of Schwarz Group are committed to a functioning circular economy, according to the principle: “For us, today’s waste is tomorrow’s recyclable material.”

Participation Across Country Borders
And there is more good news: In other countries, too, numerous employees of the companies of Schwarz Group came together for various cleanup campaigns and took action for a cleaner environment. For example, as part of the "River Cleanup Collective - Together for Cleaner Rivers" project: In more than 20 national companies, Lidl and Kaufland employees got involved in their own cleanup campaigns for clean rivers and river tributaries. Supposedly small deeds can achieve great things, as all those involved prove with their commitment to this great campaign!

World Cleanup Day 2023
Do you want to get active yourself now, maybe even start your own cleanup campaign as part of World Cleanup Day (WCD)? Supposedly the largest bottom-up civic action globally, WCD has been calling for the elimination of environmental pollution every year on the third Saturday in September since its inception in 2018. In 2022, 15 million people in over 190 countries worldwide participated in the WCD, setting a strong signal for a clean, waste-free environment with the clean-ups. With their commitment, the activists want to sensitize decision-makers, business and politics to the problem of polluting our planet. More information about World Cleanup Day can be found here.