Youth eco-challenge launched in Shymkent: instead of dancing, cleaning the city
03.08.2025 13:46:29 1017.png)
At the end of July 2025, an unusual event was launched in Shymkent as part of the national project "Clean Kazakhstan". The city's youth decided to move away from the usual Internet flash mobs with dances and pranks and launched a new challenge, the main goal of which is to clean up their hometown and make cleaning a fashionable trend.
The essence of the campaign is simple: participants choose a site in the city - it can be a park, a square, a yard, an embankment or an area near a body of water - they clean up the garbage, record the process in photos or videos and post them on social networks with the campaign hashtags. At the same time, they "pass the baton" to friends or acquaintances, calling them to join the challenge. This format allows you to reach a large audience and make cleaning not a boring duty, but a popular activity.
Youth as a driver of change
The first to join the action were students, youth activists and volunteers. They not only collected garbage, but also sorted it: plastic, glass and paper were put into separate bags to be sent for recycling. According to the participants, there is a special satisfaction in this – to see the results of their work and understand that their contribution to the cleanliness of the city has a real effect.
Interestingly, the challenge immediately acquired an emotional coloring. Many participants accompanied the video with funny comments, added music, and held mini-competitions between teams. Thus, cleaning ceased to be a routine task and turned into a socially significant event that you want to repeat.
How it was before
Environmental campaigns have been held in Shymkent for a long time, but the challenge format is a new phenomenon. In 2022, the city's environmental activists organized the Eco-Saturday project, within the framework of which mass cleanups were held once a month with the participation of public utilities and employees of organizations. In 2023, schoolchildren and students joined the Clean Kazakhstan campaigns, but the events remained one-time and did not always receive a wide response. In 2024, the Leave No Trace flash mob was held in the city park, in which bloggers and famous artists participated, but it was also limited in time.
The current format is different in that it is not tied to a specific date. You can take part at any time, in any place, and the number of participants is not limited. The main thing is to record your work and invite others. This creates a chain reaction that can maintain interest in the topic of city cleanliness throughout the year.
Social and environmental value
According to environmentalists, such initiatives give tangible results not only in terms of cleaning. They form a sustainable attitude towards the environment among young people and city dwellers in general. When a person cleans up garbage with his own hands, he begins to pay more attention to what is happening around him.
In addition, waste sorting, which has become part of the challenge, is an important step towards reducing the load on landfills. Recycling plastic and paper allows you to reduce the amount of garbage, and therefore reduce harm to nature.
Support from the city and business
Local authorities and public organizations have expressed their willingness to support the challenge. In the future, it is planned to reward the most active participants, publish their work on official resources, and even attract sponsors who can provide prizes or discounts for participation in the campaign. Some entrepreneurs have already offered bonuses for those who show photos or videos of cleaning as part of the challenge.
Young people note that such events are not only useful for the city, but also help people communicate. Participants gather in teams, meet new people, learn to work together. Joint activities bring people together, and the results inspire new projects.
The organizers plan to expand the geography of the challenge beyond Shymkent. There is an idea to pass the baton to other cities of Kazakhstan so that the project turns into a national youth movement. At the same time, they emphasize that the main goal is not just to clean the territory once, but to make caring for cleanliness a permanent habit.
A new eco-challenge in Shymkent has become a fresh look at an old problem. Instead of one-time cleanups or traditional cleanups, young people have proposed a format in which everyone can contribute while staying in their own rhythm of life. The idea of "cleaning instead of dancing for likes" is already finding a response among city residents and could become the beginning of a long-term trend.
If this momentum continues, in a few months the city will have not only cleaner streets and parks, but also a new generation of residents for whom ecology is not an empty word, but part of their way of life.