The British Embassy celebrated Earth Day in Zagreb by providing 2000 free cotton shopping bags to customers at one of the city’s Mercator shopping centres on 25 April. Increasing environmental awareness amongst the local population was the aim of this event.

Ambassador David Blunt addressed organisers and shoppers in Croatian during the ceremony, saying: ‘Environmental protection presents one of the biggest challenges for all mankind today’ and ‘We shall need to adapt by doing things differently—and using these shopping bags is a good place to start’.

Cotton bags are ‘environmentally-friendly’ and can be used repeatedly. Plastic bags take 1000 years to break down and cause problems for wildlife both on land and in the water.

Vilibald, a local NGO, organised the day’s festivities, which were the final part of their campaign ‘Gift to the Planet’. During the campaign, which sought to educate the city’s youth about environmental protection, Vilibald organised numerous workshops for nursery and elementary school children to paint their own designs onto the shopping bags. Staff at the British Embassy in Zagreb also joined the fun by painting some of the shopping bags with the children and staff of the Slobostina Rehabilitation Centre on 6 April.

An entertainment programme featuring the children’s choir ‘Kikici, well-known Croatian singer Luka Nizetic, and Nika Turkovic, winner of Croatia’s ‘Dora’ for children, continued until the early evening.

The Embassy provided £2000 (16,000 HRK) sponsorship to the project.