The municipality of Ecatepec in México state set a Guinness World Record on Sunday for the most participants in a one-day public trash-collection event, with 148,525 participants. 

Ecatepec, one of Mexico’s most populous municipalities and a large part of the Mexico City metropolitan area, broke the previous record of 146,700 citizen collectors set in 2018 by Tokyo, the world’s biggest city.

The event was organized by the Ecatepec and México state governments. Mayor Azucena Cisneros Coss and Governor Delfina Gómez Álvarez encouraged members of civil society, civil associations and neighborhood groups to join the effort. They also participated themselves, showing up at the event with gloves, sacks and brooms to lead the “A Clean Ecatepec is Safer” campaign. 

“We as adults, through example, can send this message to our future generations: to put our trash in its proper place,” Governor Gómez said, stressing the need “to work for others.” 

Ecatepec is considered the most dangerous city in México state, with over 90% of its residents reporting that they feel unsafe, according to Mexico’s national statistics agency INEGI. It is also the most polluted. “We must all be part of the solution and contribute so that in Ecatepec there is no more garbage or neglect, and so that our city is an example not of theft or filth, but of positive qualities,” Mayor Cisneros said in a press conference leading up to the challenge.

Organization was a major factor in Ecatepec’s record-breaking mission. Between 2,000 and 8,000 people gathered around each of 73 mass collection points, with 229 schools, churches and neighborhoods serving as meeting points.

Residents cleared trash from streets, plazas, gardens, median strips and public thoroughfares in areas such as the Tolotzin I neighborhood next to Grand Canal, Las Torres Avenue, the Tulpetlac expansion and the Bicentenario sports complex in the Hank González neighborhood.

Trash collecting started at 10 a.m. as whistles were blown. At the end, Alfredo Arista Rueda, the official Guinness World Records judge, announced that Ecatepec had broken the world record and presented the award to Cisneros.

The mayor congratulated those who took part. “When you want, you can unite a community and change things, especially breaking stigmas,” she said. “Ecatepec is a community that seeks to transform its environment.”

With reports from Milenio and La Jornada