World Cleanup Day is on Sunday 20 September 2026. On one day, people all over the world pick up litter from streets, parks, rivers and beaches. You do not need experience or special kit. You need a couple of hours, a pair of gloves and a place that could do with a tidy. Here is how to find a clean up near you, what to bring, and how to make the hours count afterwards.
What World Cleanup Day is
The United Nations made 20 September World Cleanup Day in December 2023, so 2026 is only its third year as an official UN day. The idea is simple. If lots of people clean up on the same day, everyone sees how much waste is out there, and how fast a place changes when people look after it.
This year it falls on a Sunday, and it lands inside the Great British Beach Clean, which the Marine Conservation Society runs from Friday 18 to Sunday 27 September. So if Sunday does not work for you, you have ten days.
Find a clean up near you
- World Cleanup Day events: the organisers list clean ups around the world at worldcleanupday.org.
- Beach cleans: the Marine Conservation Society has a Find a beach clean map with every Great British Beach Clean on it. Pick a beach, pick a date, sign up.
- Closer to home: ask your school, youth club, faith group or local litter picking group what they have planned. Your council's website often lists community clean ups too.
Nothing nearby? Start small. Two friends, one street and one hour is a clean up. Ask your council before you go: many lend litter pickers and will collect the full bags if you tell them where you left them.
What to bring, and how to stay safe
- Gloves, sturdy shoes and clothes for the weather. A litter picker if you can borrow one.
- A bag or a bucket, water, and a charged phone.
- Leave anything sharp or strange where it is: needles, broken glass, chemicals, anything medical. Tell the organiser or the council instead.
- Stay back from road edges, cliffs and fast water. On a beach, check the tide times before you set off.
- Under 18? Go with an organised group or a trusted adult, and tell someone at home where you will be.
Going as a group
A clean up is the easiest group volunteering there is. One place, two hours, and everyone can take part. If you are bringing a class, a club or a team: pick the spot and the time, split into pairs, agree where the full bags go before you start, and give one person the job of keeping count of who came and for how long.
On a Great British Beach Clean you also record what you find along a 100 metre stretch of beach. The Marine Conservation Society uses those records in its campaigning, so your tally matters as much as your bags.
Make the hours count
Two hours on a beach is real volunteering, and it should not vanish by Monday. On Vinspired you can add volunteering you did anywhere, even when the clean up was not listed with us:
- Create your profile, or sign in.
- Add an experience: what you did, where, the date and the hours.
- Name a referee, someone who was there, such as the organiser, a teacher or your group leader. They get an email and confirm it.
Once it is confirmed, the hours sit on your record as verified, ready to use in a CV or a UCAS personal statement, and handy when your DofE leader asks what you did. Not sure which skills a clean up shows? Teamwork, reliability and care for your community are a good start, and the skills passport quiz helps you name the rest.
After Sunday
The Great British Beach Clean runs until Sunday 27 September, so there is still time after World Cleanup Day itself. And if you liked it, make it a habit: a monthly pick with friends changes a street faster than you would think. You can find regular roles that look after places and wildlife under environment, see what is coming up on the awareness days calendar, or read more about World Cleanup Day and the Great British Beach Clean.
