SEND US YOUR CLEANUP STORY

CleanUps and your community are personal. We get that and love to hear stories about YOUR cleanup that may we may publish. They don’t need to be written by a professional… just heartfelt and real. We accept everything about cleanups… why you cleanup, persuading others to cleanup, your individual cleanup, your group cleanup, your community’s cleanup, cleanup solutions, nice letters, and especially local non-profit partners.

It’s a simple process:

CONTRIBUTING WRITER SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Thank you for your interest in being a contributing writer for the CleanUp News!

Currently, we are a completely volunteer-run organization and are unable to pay writers. However, all writers will be given a byline and are welcome to use any published articles in their portfolios.

The topics that we cover in the CleanUp News include:

1. CleanUp: These topics will be specific to our current partners and highlight clean up efforts around the world. If you are a part of a cleanup or organization that regularly runs cleanups, we want to feature those types of stories here.

2. Land: To break up scientific news and environmental progress updates, we split the topics between land and water. Since we started as Clean Trails, we will likely highlight public lands and parks quite often. We are not restricted to those areas, though. In this section, we want to highlight waste in public lands, parks, cities, and landfills.

3. Water: Just as with the land category, the water news should focus on scientific research/industry experts and highlight ocean, river, and lake-based waste.

4. Supply: The supply section will focus on how waste is produced within our current linear system and highlight ways companies can start to move to a less wasteful production. This section can also highlight local waste management systems, government policies that impact waste stream, understanding where waste is created in the supply chain, and highlight companies, communities, and countries that have had success in mitigating waste.

5. Demand: The final area of focus will be more for consumer-based change. They can be persuasive articles to get people to see waste differently, ways consumers can boycott waste, how to go zero-waste, how to approach policymakers and companies about waste reduction/elimination, and other similar topics. This is also a good section for interviews with zero-waste and environmental activists.

**We do not accept articles that are overly political or that are biased in any way. All articles should be based in fact, although opinion pieces may be considered in certain circumstances.

**Please review our ethics and standards page.

Ways to get involved writing for the CleanUp News:

● We welcome all article pitch ideas that you have and will detail submission guidelines below.

● If you’d like a more consistent writing opportunity, then you can apply according to the instructions below.

● We also accept articles that have been published elsewhere to be republished on our news platform.

How to submit an article pitch

Use the format below and send pitch to Meg at meg@cleanupnews.org

Topic: Provide general topic idea Article Category: Specify which of the five categories it fits into

Possible Title: Provide 1-2 title ideas you have

Sources: 3-4 sources you plan to use

Article Format: What type of article is this (i.e. informative, persuasive, interview, etc.)?

Length: Projected word count (we do not accept articles with fewer than 800 words)

Brief Summary: 2-4 sentences summarizing the article

Why It Matters: An explanation of why this article is newsworthy and important

Contact Information: Provide the best way to get into contact with you

We do not require any previous writing experience to contribute to CleanUp News. However, we do ask that you write informative and trustworthy articles. If you have a portfolio of articles, please submit any writing samples you have along with the article pitch. If you do not have any writing samples, then state that you are new to writing and any applicable experiences you have.

How to apply to be a regular contributor

Provide the information listed below and submit inquiry to Meg at meg@cleanupnews.org

● Name and contact information

● Reason you’re interested in writing for CleanUp News

● Amount of time you are able to commit each month

● Any previous writing samples/experiences you have (not required, but helpful)

● Type of articles you’d like to write and the category you’d like to focus on

We recognize that this is currently an unpaid writing position. So, do not commit to more than you think you can complete. We will work with all writers schedules to provide realistic and flexible deadlines.

How to submit an article for re-publication

Follow the format below and submit the article to Meg at meg@cleanupnews.org

Article Topic: Provide general topic covered in the article

Article Title: Provide the full article title

Article Category: Which category does this article best fit?

Originally Published: Where was it originally published?

Link to Article: Provide link to article if it is a web-based publication

We also accept photo and video submissions and are open to bringing on more editors.

Please contact Meg at meg@cleanupnews.org for more information about submitting photos, videos, or editing.