Australia Awards South and West Asia

To mark World Environment Day 2023, the Bhutan Australia Alumni Association (BAAA) organised two cleaning campaigns to align with this year’s Environment Day theme: #beatplasticpollution.

One of the campaigns was a plogging event held on 3 June along the popular Lungchutse hiking trail. Plogging comes from the Swedish term plogga which combines the Swedish words for pick up (plocka upp) and jog (jogga). The BAAA, together with other volunteers picked up rubbish on the route, helping to develop a plastic free environment and encouraging environmentally friendly habits.

The BAAA along with other participants collect plastic rubbish along the popular Lungchutse hiking trail

The next event was an inter-college cleaning campaign competition held between 3–5 June in collaboration with colleges overseen by the Royal University of Bhutan. Participating teams included students from the Gedu Business College, Sherubtse College, the College of Language and Culture Studies, the College of Natural Resources and the Office of the Royal University of Bhutan. Australia Awards alumni organised the competition to raise awareness among college students about conserving the environment and the impact of plastic, to encourage them to beat plastic pollution and instill best environmental practices. Over 160 students from four colleges and 30 employees from the Royal University of Bhutan participated in the competition together with the alumni.

Students from Gedu College of Business Studies cleaning Laptshakha Town in Gedu, Chukha

Students from Sherubtse College clearing plastic trash in Khuru Bachu, Zhingkham Pangthang, Kanglung and Trashigang

The winners of the competition were to be assessed based on an ‘honour code’ where teams would share photos of the areas before and after they had cleaned, the size of area(s) cleaned, the amount of rubbish collected and the number of participants that took part in the event with BAAA.