How many years does it take a plastic bottle to break down in the grass? More than two hundred. A plastic bag can take up to five hundred. That is exactly why, on 3 June 2026 in Warsaw, we joined a group of volunteers from Google to clean up green spaces across the city and remove waste that should never have ended up there in the first place. For many residents, these are the same spaces they walk through, play in with their children, or unwind in after work, which is exactly why we wanted at least part of that space to feel natural again.
Where did the idea come from?
Warsaw’s urban greenery has faced the same problem for years: waste left behind in parks, squares and along walking paths turns places meant for rest and nature into polluted, less welcoming spaces. Bottles, packaging, plastic scraps and other litter usually end up there by accident, left after a picnic, fallen from an overflowing bin, or simply dropped in passing, yet their presence has real consequences for the surrounding environment.
We organized this action to reduce those consequences. The goal was to clean up green areas, improve the aesthetics of the surroundings, protect local nature and, just as importantly, raise the ecological awareness of the participants themselves. Cleaning up in the field works differently than any lecture ever could, because once you personally fill bag after bag with waste left in a natural setting, it becomes hard to look at littering with indifference afterward.
What did the action look like?
Throughout the day, Google’s volunteers moved through the designated green areas, collecting waste left in the grass, among bushes and along the edges of paths. Fieldwork always brings surprises: some litter was in plain sight, while other pieces had to be pulled out from under leaves or undergrowth, where they had already partially sunk into the soil.
Even though the task was physical and required attention, the atmosphere during the cleanup encouraged cooperation. Participants split into smaller groups, each covering a section of the area, which allowed the entire designated site to be thoroughly covered within a reasonable time. This kind of division of labor works well for larger actions, and this time it once again allowed the cleanup to be finished within a single day.
It is worth noting that work like this, simple as it may sound, requires good organization and the commitment of everyone taking part. Without efficient coordination it would be difficult to reach every corner of the designated area in a single day, and it is precisely that thoroughness that determines whether a place truly regains its natural look or is only cleaned superficially.
Volunteers and the partner behind the action
50 volunteers from Google took part in the event, deciding to dedicate their time to Warsaw’s green spaces. That is a considerable group for a one-day field action, and it shows that the topic of a clean natural environment engages people regardless of the industry they work in day to day.
The involvement of Google employees in initiatives like this one fits into a growing trend of corporate volunteering, through which companies give their teams time and space to act for the benefit of the local environment. For many participants, it was also a chance to spend the day differently than usual, outdoors instead of at a desk, with a concrete and tangible result visible right after the action ended.
Corporate volunteering as an investment in the future
More and more technology companies and international corporations treat employee volunteering not as a side activity, but as a permanent part of their social responsibility strategy. Taking part in actions like a green space cleanup lets teams see the direct result of their work on the very same day, something that rarely happens in everyday office tasks.
For non-profit organizations like ours, partnering with businesses matters enormously. It is precisely through the involvement of companies and their employees that we are able to run more actions in more locations, reaching green areas that would otherwise wait a long time to be cleaned up.
Urban greenery in the daily life of Varsovians
Warsaw’s parks, squares and green spaces serve far more than an aesthetic purpose today. They are places residents escape to from the noise of the city, where they walk their dogs, teach their children to ride a bike, or simply rest on the grass after work. Even brief, everyday contact with greenery lowers stress levels and improves wellbeing, which is why the quality and cleanliness of these spaces matters well beyond how they look.
When a green area is littered, its recreational value drops: people use it less often, children cannot safely play in the grass, and pets are exposed to sharp or toxic waste. By restoring cleanliness to such places, we hand them back to Warsaw’s residents in the condition they are meant to serve every day.
Why what we collected matters
Waste left in a natural space does not disappear on its own, and that is the core of the problem. A plastic package can remain in the environment for hundreds of years, breaking down over that time into smaller and smaller fragments known as microplastics, which then work their way into soil and groundwater. Cans and glass pose a mechanical threat to animals, who can injure themselves on them, while food scraps wrapped in plastic film are sometimes mistaken by wild animals for real food, leading to dangerous health consequences for them.
Urban green spaces, even small ones, serve as microhabitats for insects, birds and small mammals, and littering these spaces directly lowers their value as a place to live for local wildlife. By removing the waste, we not only improve the area’s appearance for residents, but also genuinely reduce the pressure that litter places on the plants and animals living there.
It is also worth remembering that waste left in a green area rarely stays in one place. When it rains, lighter litter gets washed into storm drains and from there into rivers and waterways, carrying microplastics and other pollutants far beyond the spot where they were originally dropped. Broken glass left on dry grass on a sunny day can even act like a lens that concentrates sunlight, one of the known causes of grass and undergrowth fires that destroy many hectares of green space every year.
That is why every action like this one, even when it covers a single part of the city, matters beyond aesthetics. It is a step toward cleaner soil, water and air in the immediate surroundings of Varsovians and the animals that inhabit these spaces.
Results and thanks
Thanks to the joint effort of Google’s volunteers, we managed to restore cleanliness to the designated green areas in Warsaw. Places that were previously littered look noticeably better now that the action is over, both for the residents who use them every day and for the animals and plants that live there.
We would like to thank all 50 Google volunteers who decided to give their time for Warsaw’s green spaces. Without their involvement, a task of this scale could not have been completed in a single day.
We hope actions like this will keep happening more often in Warsaw and other cities, because every cleaned-up spot means less waste ending up in the soil and groundwater, and more space that can fully serve both residents and nature. We believe a day spent holding a trash bag instead of sitting at a desk stays with participants for a long time and genuinely shapes their everyday habits around protecting the environment.
A single day of fieldwork will not solve the wider problem of littering on its own, but it does something a policy document cannot: it leaves a visibly cleaner, safer green space behind for the people, plants and animals who share it, and it leaves fifty more people who are far less likely to walk past a piece of litter without picking it up.
