Sustainability
Clean-Up-Day 2026:
We’re taking a stand against littering.
Mission possible:
Small team, big clean-up.
This year, once again, a group of bb employees took a closer look at the Limmat riverbank and rolled up their sleeves where litter definitely doesn’t belong. Armed with litter pickers, garbage bags, and plenty of motivation, they set out to collect anything that had no place in nature.
This time, however, it wasn’t quite that simple. Due to several scheduling conflicts, our Clean-Up-Day couldn’t take place on the originally planned date. Canceling it altogether? Not an option, of course! So we simply moved the event up by one week.
The result: a team of seven – small, tight-knit, and twice as motivated!
bb power:
No obstacle too tough.
Littering happens in a flash: a PET bottle here, a cigarette butt there – and suddenly, trash is left behind where it definitely doesn’t belong. Especially in high-traffic areas such as lake and river shores, picnic and barbecue areas, or recreational facilities, litter can quickly pile up.
The problem isn’t just about appearances. Litter left on the ground can pollute soil and waterways, put animals at risk, and create a significant amount of cleanup work. In Switzerland, around CHF 200 million is spent on this every year.
But there’s also reason to be optimistic: the perceived extent of littering in Switzerland is declining. According to the 2025 IGSU littering survey, it was at its lowest level since surveys began in 2015.
The IGSU’s current «Major Swiss Littering Study» also shows that targeted measures can make a difference: in the field experiments conducted in 2025, littering in picnic and recreational areas was reduced by around one third. Highly visible trash cans and other situation-specific measures proved particularly effective. The effect was even stronger when these measures were combined with awareness campaigns. So the trend is moving in the right direction – but less still isn’t less enough. That’s why simple solutions are so important: they can help prevent waste from being created in the first place or ensure it ends up where it belongs. Everyone can play a part.
By the way: the next round of field experiments is taking place in food service areas around takeout locations; experiments along rural roads are planned for 2027.
bb power:
No obstacle too tough.
Back to our Clean-Up team: for the crew, it was time to keep their eyes peeled, roll up their sleeves, and get to work!
No thicket was too dense, no slope too steep. With plenty of determination, the team searched, found, and collected – and once again uncovered quite a few surprises along the way.
SUPs and floor lamps, which had provided some particularly memorable surprises in previous years, were nowhere to be found this time. But things were anything but boring: from a pacifier and a golf ball to a grill and a motorcycle license plate, 2026 once again had its share of finds that made us stop and wonder for a moment: how on earth did this end up here?
And, of course, there were the usual «classics»:
- Cigarette butts
- PET bottles
- Aluminum cans
- Glass bottles
- Packaging and all kinds of other waste
What looks like small stuff at first quickly adds up. And at the latest when you start picking it up, it becomes clear just how much waste is left near the riverbank – and how easily some of it goes unnoticed in everyday life.
That’s why our Clean-Up-Day is about more than simply picking up trash: it makes visible what is otherwise easy to overlook and shows that every piece of litter collected means a little less waste for nature and the environment. After all, litter left behind can be carried further by wind and water and eventually end up in our waterways. So the best litter is the litter that never gets left behind in the first place.
Sustainability doesn’t clock out:
Our commitment at bb trading.
After a busy Friday afternoon, our Clean-Up team wrapped up the day with a relaxed apéro.
With a cool drink in hand, everyone raised a glass to the work they had accomplished and to a cleaner stretch of the Limmat riverbank. Because sustainability can be fun, too – and working together brings people closer.
At bb trading, however, Clean-Up-Day is about much more than a one-time environmental initiative. It represents what matters to us in our day-to-day business: paying attention, taking responsibility, and taking action where we can make a difference.
Sustainable business practices are part of what we do all year round – from choosing our promotional products and materials to maintaining responsible supply chains, managing our environmental impact, and taking action on climate change.
For us, it’s not about being perfect. It’s about staying committed, understanding our own impact, taking responsibility, and getting better step by step.
Sustainable action is built on countless small and large decisions – and sometimes it simply means putting on a pair of gloves and picking up litter with a grabber along the Limmat riverbank.
Environmental protection has been important to us since bb trading was founded.
Learn more about our sustainability initiatives and how we create sustainable emotions together:
Climate Impact
Since 2017, we have offset the CO₂ emissions of our promotional products. We assess the environmental impacts of our business activities and products and continuously work to reduce them.
Environmental management
Our ISO 14001-aligned environmental management system helps us systematically identify environmental aspects, optimize processes, and implement sustainable improvements in our day-to-day business.
