A campaign to remove tiles from the Netherlands’ gardens and outdoor spaces resulted in almost six million of them being taken out during this year’s efforts, the organisers said on Monday.

In total, 203 of the Netherlands’ 342 local councils took part in the competition, which first took place in 2020 and has grown into a “serious green movement”, the organisers said.

Venlo, Roosendaal and Valkenburg all won a golden spade for removing the most tiles per resident, while Utrecht local council removed 437,467 tiles in total, winning the award for the highest number overall.

Some 20 million unnecessary tiles have been taken out since the first edition of the event, equivalent to 360 football fields of additional green space, the organisers say.

Since then, Flanders in Belgium has joined the movement and talks are underway with Germany, France and Croatia to take it Europe-wide.