The Vantaanjoki river starts at a street drain – Keep it clean!

The city of Riihimäki is once again participating in the Keep the Archipelago Tidy campaign, Mahanpuruja muuvista. The campaign uses stickers around the rainwater wells on the streets to alert residents that garbage from the wells is flowing directly into our waterways.

– The city of Riihimäki is participating in the campaign for the third time. Most of the city's stormwater flows into the Vantaanjoki River. The Vantaanjoki River is home to endangered trout, among other things, so this is an important campaign for us, says Päivi Sundman, city gardener for Riihimäki.

This year, in addition to perch, you can also find pike on the street stickers. The stickers will be on the streetscape of Riihimäki city center for two to four weeks, after which they will be removed. The nationwide campaign period is 18–31 August 2025.

In Riihimäki, stickers can be seen, for example, near the Atomi shopping center, Granit square and at the corner of Jukka Jalonen park. There are about ten objects in total.

Street drains lead directly to the Vantaajoki River

Cigarette butts, nicotine pouches, chewing gums and plastic wrappers thrown on the ground are carried by wind and rainwater into street drains. A large part of street drains discharge stormwater directly into the nearest watercourse, which is the Vantaanjoki River in Riihimäki. Urban street drains generally do not have filters that would collect the debris carried along with rain and meltwater, i.e. stormwater. Urban stormwater networks are estimated to be one significant route for macro-litter such as cigarette butts, nicotine pouches and chewing gum into watercourses.

Lack of knowledge is still the main reason why people litter. It is common to throw cigarette butts into street wells without knowing that their filters are plastic. The goal of the "Mahanpuruja plastista" campaign is to wake up people passing by to think about the impact of their own behavior on the littering of waterways and to increase information about the routes of garbage.

The Mahanpuruja Muovista campaign is being seen in several cities in Finland. 22 cities from Rovaniemi to Helsinki are participating. In the campaign, the city's street manhole covers will be marked with colorful fish images throughout Finland during the campaign period from 18 to 31 August 2025. The campaign's manhole cover stickers are made of PVC-free material, which can be recycled as metal after use.

More information about the campaign From the Keep the Archipelago Tidy Association website.