On September 20, 2026, people across the world will come together for World Cleanup Day, this year under the theme “From Clean Plates to Clean Cities.”
The theme brings attention to something that is often overlooked when we talk about waste: what happens before waste reaches the streets, drains, rivers and dumping sites. Food waste and organic waste are a major part of the waste we generate, and the choices we make about what we buy, consume and throw away are closely connected to the kind of cities we live in.
A clean city does not begin with a broom. It begins with how we use things, how we manage what is left behind and how we take responsibility for the spaces around us.
For Mathare River FC, this conversation is already part of the work around the team and the community.
Football, waste and our community
Mathare River FC is taking part in this year's World Cleanup Day through #FootballForPlastic, bringing the environmental message into a space that brings young people and communities together: football.
The idea is straightforward. Football brings people together. It creates conversations, competition, friendships and a sense of belonging. That same energy can also be used to talk about the environment and the way we manage waste in our communities.
This year's World Cleanup Day gives us an opportunity to connect those conversations with a global movement focused on cleaner communities, responsible consumption and better ways of dealing with waste.
The connection with Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG 12) is particularly important. SDG 12 calls for responsible consumption and production, which means looking beyond simply collecting waste. It also means thinking about what we consume, what we waste and how we can reduce unnecessary waste in the first place. That is where the #FootballForPlastic message comes in.
To mark World Cleanup Day 2026, Mathare River FC will be part of an engaging football tournament bringing together:
Mathare River FC
Luckysummer Sports Club
Kuza FC
Terror Squad
Mathare Flames
Rodney Strikers
Joska SC
Church Boys FC
There will, of course, be football. Teams will compete for glory, and the tournament will bring together players and football supporters around the game they love.
But alongside the competition will be an environmental message: sustainable waste management and responsible consumption matter too.
This is not about separating football from environmental action. The two can exist in the same space. A football tournament is also a gathering of people, and wherever people gather, there is an opportunity to think about the waste they produce and how it is handled.
From clean plates to clean cities
The 2026 theme, “From Clean Plates to Clean Cities,” puts food waste and organic waste at the centre of the World Cleanup Day conversation.
It asks us to look at waste differently.
When we talk about a clean city, it is easy to think only about picking up rubbish that has already been thrown away. But preventing waste, using resources responsibly and making better consumption choices are also part of creating cleaner communities.
Food is a good example. 
What we eat, what we buy, what we leave behind and what happens to that waste all form part of the bigger environmental picture. The same applies to plastic bottles, packaging and other materials that can end up in our streets, drainage systems and waterways when they are poorly managed.
For a community like Mathare, these issues are not distant environmental debates. They are part of everyday life.
That is why the message needs to be practical and close to the people who experience these challenges.
Our take: the game is happening in our environment too
For Mathare River FC, World Cleanup Day is an opportunity to connect what happens on the football field with what happens around it.
A tournament brings together different teams, young people, supporters and members of the community. It creates a natural space for conversations about the environment without taking away from the football itself.
Mathare River Queens Team
Through #FootballForPlastic, Mathare River FC is using the tournament to help create awareness around plastic waste, sustainable waste management and responsible consumption.
The message is not complicated: what we do with waste matters.
The plastic bottle used during a match has to go somewhere. The food left after an event has to go somewhere. Packaging, bottles and other waste do not simply disappear when we are finished with them.
How we deal with these things is part of how we care for the places where we live, play and grow.
What we expect from the day
The planned World Cleanup Day activities are expected to bring together football and environmental awareness in one program.
The tournament will provide the main sporting activity, while the wider World Cleanup Day message will give players, supporters and the community an opportunity to think about sustainable waste management and responsible consumption.
For Mathare River FC, the expected outcome is not simply a successful tournament.
We want the day to contribute to a better understanding of waste and the choices that lead to cleaner communities. We also want the #FootballForPlastic message to continue beyond September 20.
World Cleanup Day is one day on the calendar, but the issue it highlights is an everyday one.
Every bottle, packet, food item and piece of waste presents a choice: where it goes, whether it can be avoided, reused, recovered or properly disposed of.
Those choices add up.
World Cleanup Day 2026.
From Clean Plates to Clean Cities.
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