The Relay for a Clean Olt is an ambitious and engaging initiative, launched by three environmental NGOs that have formed the Alliance for a Clean Olt: Mioritics Association, ARNI Association, and Propark – Foundation for Protected Areas.

“We joined forces to create a community-based model for tackling plastic pollution in the Olt River.”

The project focuses on four riverine communities in the Făgăraș Mountains area: Racoviță, the town of Avrig and its surrounding villages, Porumbacu de Jos, and Arpașu de Jos.

“This project builds on our previous work along the Olt River, both in nature education and waste-related initiatives. The large amounts of plastic – and other types of – waste have a major impact on all of us: residents, nature lovers, locals, children, and even international visitors.

Too often, the river’s beauty is hidden beneath floating islands of plastic. Knowing the openness and growing engagement of the local communities here, we chose to focus our efforts along this stretch of the Olt. The relay is passed on through local schools, via teachers and students, to local authorities and the tourists who visit these areas. Naturally, the entire community is invited to take part in the activities, to learn, and to come to see the Olt River as a shared value – not only natural or economic, but also cultural.”

Our mission with The Relay for a Clean Olt is to trigger a strong wave of awareness about the environmental harm caused by plastic and other waste polluting the riverbanks and waters of the Olt.

“This is not a one-off project. Although its main phase runs for a year, our hope is that the initiative will be continued by each community – through their schools and local councils – with ongoing support from the Alliance for a Clean Olt,” says project manager Florentina Florescu.

The Olt is one of Romania’s most important rivers, originating in the Hășmașu Mare Mountains (Eastern Carpathians) at 1,280 meters above sea level. It stretches over approximately 615 km, has 80 tributaries, and over 20 reservoirs have been built along its course. In Dacian times, the river was known as Alutus, and it carries with it many legends and stories.

Because the Olt is not just a natural and economic asset, but also a vital community resource, we launched this campaign to mobilize schools and local authorities to both clean up and protect the riverbanks and waters, and to prevent plastic pollution in public spaces throughout these communities.

While the project focuses on only 30 kilometers of the river – flowing past the four communities – we believe this local effort can have a meaningful impact all the way downstream, along the remaining 270 kilometers, until the Olt meets the Danube.

By the end of the project, each of the four communities will have a dedicated educational space called Nature School – a cleaned and prepared outdoor area for learning, experimentation, and communication.

These spaces will remain under the care of the schools and will serve both as open-air classrooms and as local landmarks for raising awareness about water pollution and the importance of selective waste collection.

We invite you to see The Relay for a Clean Olt as an ongoing process – in time and space – flowing downstream, just like the river itself and the journey of the plastic waste.

In this way, we educate young people (and, in fact, the wider community) about both visible sources of pollution – plastics, metals, construction materials, fuels – and the less visible ones, such as untreated wastewater. The relay is passed from one school to another, from schools to entire communities, and from one locality to the next.

The relay also extends through time, as we train teachers in nature education, equipping them to continue working with students year after year.

It is also passed on to local authorities: 15 representatives from local councils will participate in accredited waste management training.

In addition, 20 local government officials will take part in an exchange visit with the Ciugud Municipality and the ENVIPCO recycling station in Sebeș – to explore effective solutions for selective collection and recycling, and most importantly, to learn how to engage and motivate their communities.

To bring about the needed change – clean towns, clean rivers, nature free of plastic – we need to work together, across all sectors and levels: organizational and social.

At the end of the year, even after the project phase concludes, the Alliance for a Clean Olt will remain active and involved in these communities.

ARNI Association will continue nature education activities for children and organize Olt River Hikes. Mioritics Association, a key actor in managing the ecotourism destination “Transylvanian Highlands,” will expand the Relay for a Clean Olt educational program to other riverine communities, such as Voila, Șona, and Făgăraș. The association will also promote the concept of Olt River Hiking to tourists.

The Relay for a Clean Olt is part of the Clean Waters program, implemented with the support of Lidl Romania. This program is a call to action – encouraging communities and local authorities to engage in preventing and reducing plastic pollution in the Danube and its tributaries.

Project Manager: Florentina Florescu – Mioritics Association
 florentina@schubz.ro |  +40 724 749 470