Image caption:

Often carelessly thrown away by hikers, a paper handkerchief can however take up to five years to decompose: a plastic bottle can take up to 5,000. (c) Lena Everding

Cigarettes, chewing gum, banana skins, PET bottles, plastic packaging, paper tissues: the mountains are attracting ever more tourists, some of whom thoughtlessly dispose of their waste in the natural world. This rubbish endangers animals and plants, poisons the environment and creates a blot on the landscape. The crux of the matter is that litter attracts more litter, because the inhibition threshold drops with every piece of litter left lying around.

Picking up litter and informing people online

Anyone in Germany and Austria who wants to help clean up the mountains can take part in the “CleanUP Days”, where mountain lovers can enter the route that they are cleaning on an interactive map. Volunteers receive free CleanUP kits at distribution points containing tongs and a reusable bag. The CleanUP Days of the #plasticfreepeaks movement also invite people to attend regional closing events, featuring concerts and other events.

With activities involving school students, public events and workshops, the CLEANALP project in the Italian Alps conducts plenty of awareness-raising alongside its clean-up activities. Alpine associations in Switzerland and Austria also organise regular litter collection missions and provide information material as part of campaigns such as #cleanmountains and “Clean Environment” and “Clean Alps – Clean Waters”. In Austria, GLOBAL2000 has developed an app called “DreckSpotz”, which volunteers can use to geo-reference litter.

The “Keep the mountains clean” campaign in France is raising awareness of the need for greater cleanliness in mountain areas. The concept is simple: climbers and mountain walkers post a photo of the litter they have found on social media along with the hashtag #keepthemountainsclean, then take it home. This motivates others to do the same.

Litter-picking is currently mainly voluntary, with research results scarce. Environmental experts say that it is now necessary to develop measures to prevent pollution on the scale that is now found in the oceans.

Further information:

www.plasticfreepeaks.com/patron-cleanup-tour-2023 (en), www.europeanresearchinstitute.eu/en_GB/cleanalps-proteggiamo-e-puliamo-le-nostre-montagne (it), www.sac-cas.ch/de/umwelt/bergsport-und-umwelt/cleanmountains (en) www.keepthemountainsclean.com (fr), www.global2000.at/publikationen/muell-bericht (en)