Google has today teamed up with dozens of community action organizations around the world to coordinate an International Cleanup Weekend on October 13-14th. Originally started as an internal Google project to encourage Googlers to cleanup their local beaches, parks, and trails close to home and to share their progress using My Maps, the initiative is now being launched publicly in coordination with community action organizations in fifteen countries. In the United States, Google has partnered with Keep America Beautiful, Idealist.org, the Sierra Club, Americorps, and the Student Conservation Alliance in an effort to demonstrate how local cleanup efforts can collectively foster community awareness of the environment at large.

To coordinate and document this global initiative, participants are encouraged to create and submit maps of their intended cleanup areas in Google Maps. Instructions on how to get started are here: . So far more than 100 cleanup maps have been created by Googlers chronicling the areas they intend to pick-up with friends and family.

I could see this growing into a big deal if Google (who has the money) were to stick with it and encourage users to do it through promotions on the front page, or perhaps in the calendar, or map pages.