Sweden is a relatively clean country. We have the highest numbers in the world of recycling, especially drink cans and PET bottles, as we get a small amount of money for every can or PET bottle we hand in at the shop. (This is paid for by an addition to the price of the drink in the first place) Nevertheless you see an awful lot of rubbish along the roads and on the ground in the town centres. Even in the middle of the woods! Some people seem to think that dropping rubbish on the ground is what you should do, even if there are bins around.
In 2005 the organisation Håll Sverige rent! (Keep Sweden Clean!) started a campain called One piece of rubbish aday (In Swedish of course) The campain, in all its simplicity, aims to raise people's awareness about the damgers of those little bits of rubbish that we drop on the ground and to get people to pick up their own rubbish, by urging people to pich up one piece of rubbish aday and put it in the nearest bin! If everyone did that, hey presto! We'd have a MUCH nicer environment!
Someone has now taken this idea onto Facebook, and someone else mentioned this in their blogg, which jolted my memory. And I thought, why not spead this via the Cub Scout groups around the world too!
So this autumn you'll hear more about what rubbish we have in Falkenberg, Sweden, and what we do with it!
Happy scouting!
Picture by: Alfred N
The Swedish National Day is a very new holiday. It is celebrated in rememberance of King Gustav Wasa getting elected King in 1523. It was commonly called the Day of the Flag, until 2005, when it was made a National Holiday. 
It is all a bit more festive these days, when people are off work. In Falkenberg there is a gathering at the outdoor theatre, just by our scout hut, where new citizens get celebrated, the brass band is playing, choirs singing, people in national dress mingle and have a picnic.
The group was asked by the council to help setting out all the seats (and put them away again). It was hard and sweaty work, and as the Scouts were off cannoeing together with the Junior Scouts on a quest for a deserted island, and quite a few of the Venture and Rover scouts were celebrating their own, or close friends and relatives' 6th form college exams (a very big tradition i Sweden) some of the leaders pitched in instead.
Let's put it this way:We won't need to pay to go to the gym this week. But we had time to relax in the sun too, to administer the last bit of paperwork for this term, and start making plans for the next. 
There were a few quiz questions put up along the shore line and in the reeds, summarizing what we've learnt during this, for many of the Cubs their first, year of scouting. In the autumn 15 Cubs will join the older Junior Scouts, and we will have room for some new.
Since there hasn't been any rain for a month, it is unusually dry, and the rescue departement has issued a fire ban, but we were alowed to use a coal bbq. People had brought plenty of the now so popular single-use barbies, but we only used one communal in the end, to minimize the risks.
We're going to miss our Cubs over the summer, but are looking forward to seeing them again when school starts in August.
