Beating back rubbish
La Commune de Schaerbeek - De gemeente Schaarbeek, Brussels
September 2018
Question
How do you encourage people to get their hands dirty and clean up their local area?
Answer
With a social media campaign designed to build a strong grassroots movement to fight litter.
Everyone’s fed up of dirty streets and rubbish, but not many people are actually prepared to do something about it. The ‘Schaerbeek tout propre’ campaign, run by Tipik for the local authority, turned residents into Ambassadors and actors. Citizens became part of the solution: working together across communities to clean up their corner of Brussels.
Social media was at the heart of the campaign. We teamed up with Brussel’s ambassador Leo Not Happy to reach out to Schaerbeek residents in French and Dutch through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The success of the hashtag #1030ToutPropre was picked up by national media.
Over 100 residents became Ambassadors, galvanising other members of the community to attend five community-led clean-up events across Schaerbeek. Over 30 street-theatre events hammered home the importance of keeping our streets clean and inspired schools and locals to play their part.
