World Cleanup Day 2026, 7 Sept–31 Oct
An Award project to pick up, record and find the answer
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Analysis of youth records, as of 4 Oct
81 of 116 butts lay 30–60 m from a school, just past the no-smoking zone.
What should go where the zone ends?
139 of 183 items were butts.
Who looks after the street outside the wall?
Cleared on 28 Sept. The butts were back three days later.
If a bus stop fills up again after cleaning, what should change?
54 of 102 items were plastic wrappers.
Where between the shop and the school should wrappers go?
20 cans and 20 pieces of Styrofoam in one spot.
How do we stop people leaving piles of litter here?
331 of 416 items (80%) on Dochon-ro 7beon-gil were butts.
Where should butts go outside the shops?
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Join the activity by 31 October, and your centre could be named an outstanding award centre.
You can plan your World Cleanup Day activity as part of the Voluntary Service section of the Award.
What is the Youth Award?
The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award began in 1956, started by the Duke of Edinburgh. Young people in more than 130 countries take part today. It is a programme for growing on your own terms.
You set your own goals across four areas — voluntary service, skills, physical recreation and adventurous journey — and keep at them.
In Korea there are two. The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award is for ages 14 to 24. The Korea Youth Challenge Award grew out of it for ages 7 to 15, shaped around what younger participants actually do.
Your World Cleanup Day activity — data plogging and the rest — can be planned as Voluntary Service in either one.
Start with something small for the environment, and see where it takes you.
You do not need to be a Korean national. Foreign nationals living in Korea have joined and received the Award.
Award enquiries · Korea Youth Work Agency ☎ +82 2-330-2877
If World Cleanup Day is what gets you started, here is how it works. This is separate from your participant number — skip it if you are already enrolled.
Enrolment fee Bronze level costs KRW 30,000. It is waived for young people on basic livelihood support, in low-income single-parent households, in the near-poverty bracket, or living in rural and remote areas — supporting documents required.
Over a billion meals are wasted every day while millions go hungry. Food waste strains waste systems, fuels climate change, and wastes land and water.
On World Cleanup Day, 20 September 2026, the world goes beyond picking up litter to change what creates it.
26 everyday actions that cut waste. Pick the ones you have tried and log them.
At the table5
Drinks1
Sorting it right7
Buying less6
Using less3
Riding less2
Spreading the word2Dadaepo is where the Nakdong River meets the sea; the river carried the sand of its 900 m beach.
Along with the cleanup, we log items, distance and location on our phones to build a picture of Dadaepo.
On 18 September at Dadaepo, a drone carried a bag of marine litter across the water to the plaza. Here is the 5-minute flight at 4× speed.
Full test report (in Korean) →
Clean a beach and build a field guide of what you find.
contact@itaseoul.org
Registering creates an ITA City account for you. If you already have one, we use it — you do not sign up twice.
The number itself is your place in line for World Cleanup Day 2026. One number per person; it does not change if you register again, and everything you log stays under it.
Anyone can take part, at any age, whether or not you are in a Youth Award. If you do want it to count, your Award Leader has to approve the plan before you start — activities done before approval are not counted.
