Data & Sociological Impact
The ambition of 5%.
Strive for Five is the movement's organising ambition: involve enough people that caring for shared places becomes a visible social norm. It is a campaign target, not a guaranteed scientific threshold.
139M+
Lifetime Volunteers
Citizens united across 8 global campaigns since 2018.
190
Countries in 2025
The published global result for the 2025 campaign.
1.1M+
Tons of Waste Cleared
The movement's published cumulative collection total.
5%
Participation Ambition
Roughly 400 million people—the scale represented by the campaign's 5% goal.
Why 5% matters
From passive awareness to active culture shift.
Most environmental campaigns aim for broad, passive awareness. World Cleanup Day aims for active, physical participation.
Physical participation makes waste visible in a way that passive awareness often does not. Volunteers see what is discarded locally and can carry that knowledge into daily decisions.
The 5% goal gives organisers a memorable scale for moving beyond awareness. It does not promise that one participation level will automatically change behaviour or waste systems.
Progress toward the 5% ambition
Historical Data
Year-by-Year Growth
| Year | Volunteers | Countries | Waste Collected | Milestone / Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 25.0 Million | 190 | 215,000+ tons | Second official year as a UN International Day. Record participation across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia with strengthened corporate partnerships. |
| 2024 | 19.5 Million | 191 | 198,000+ tons | Inaugural year on the official United Nations calendar following unanimous UN General Assembly resolution 78/122. |
| 2023 | 19.1 Million | 191 | 205,000+ tons | Honored with the UN SDG Mobilization Award in Rome for pioneering bottom-up civic mobilization. |
| 2022 | 14.8 Million | 190 | 165,000+ tons | Post-pandemic resurgence with major civic cleanups across 190 nations and expanded digital cleanup campaigns. |
| 2021 | 13.5 Million | 191 | 140,000+ tons | Awarded the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award for outstanding civic mobilization during pandemic restrictions. |
| 2020 | 11.0 Million | 166 | 120,000+ tons | Adapted to global lockdowns with individual cleanups, cigarette butt challenges, and the launch of Digital Cleanup Day. |
| 2019 | 21.2 Million | 180 | 280,000+ tons | Massive worldwide green wave starting from Fiji and traveling 36 hours across global time zones to American Samoa. |
Help the movement advance toward 5%.
Sunday, 20 September 2026 · Clean one place. Change what's normal.