The massive amount of trash that eats up the small territory of Tuvalu is another threat to the Tuvaluans together with the risk of submersion due to sea level rise. As they began to contact with the outside, plastic containers were piled up as high as palm trees in a garbage site at the north end of Funafuti. The same was true at the south end. As there is no place to bury or burn the trash, the mountains of garbage become huger, whereas the residents did not actually feel any sense of crisis about it.

The Intl. WeLoveU Foundation visited the southern town of Funafuti, which was suffering from drinking water shortage, to install water tanks, and then decided to hold the Clean WORLD Movement there with the villagers.

Two days before the cleanup, Branch Manager of the Foundation Jeong Geun-seung who was invited to a radio station in Tuvalu introduced the Clean WORLD Movement hosted by the Intl. WeLoveU Foundation, and raised awareness about environmental protection, and encouraged people to make efforts to purify the contaminated environment. On Sep. 25, the cleanup which had never happened before in Tuvalu began at 6 a.m. Around 80 people from the city office and neighborhood, regardless of their age, spontaneously came out to the garbage site and collected thoughtlessly scattered trash in the southern village of Funafuti.

“It’s really good because we can see that the whole community comes together to work as a team. Even though it’s really hot, they’ve agreed to come and clean up the community because that’s what they wanted to clean. Anyone who is just walking along the road sees us cleaning, and joins us. I’m very happy about it,” Manager of Environment Department Miriama Uluiviti said.

The cleanup began early in the morning because the weather was hot and the sun set early. It was finished around 3 or 4 p.m. after cleaning up all the trash in the pit and the village near to it. The collected garbage was more than 10t (22,046lb). The residents had not thrown garbage with a selfish mind, ‘I’m not responsible of it,’ but they did not know how to deal with the garbage.

The Clean WORLD Movement carried out in Tuvalu planted an idea of recycling to people who threw garbage, and encouraged them to think that they are obligated to hand down a clean environment to their descendents.