Leuven Cleanup & Reflection

On Sunday, 14 September, Bin your butts Leuven gathers at the Grote Begijnhof (Great Beguinage) of Leuven, to reclaim our public spaces from the traces of Big Tobacco and to open space for reflection, art and imagination. Join us! 

Programme

9h00 - 9h40: simple plant-based breakfast 

Together, we pause and ask: what kind of city are we shaping? Whose traces do we see in the streets? 

Participants may bring a text, a poem, or a drawing, or create something on the spot with the materials provided.

9h40 - 12h30: we move into the streets for a collective action: collecting cigarette butts and litter while also creating small personal marks (lines, symbols, words) on cards. These, together with the texts and drawings, will form the basis for a collaborative art journal.

Why cigarette butts? Because they are made of plastic and are the most littered item on earth. Because they leak heavy metals and carcinogens into soil and water. Because they are both intimate and industrial, both private habit and public waste. This action is not charity. It is not only a clean-up. It is a collective intervention: a way to make visible what usually disappears into the cracks. To expose how a multibillion-dollar industry externalises its costs onto bodies, streets and ecosystems, and how we, as citizens, can refuse to carry those traces in silence.

All materials are provided. Bring only a water bottle and your presence.