Features | Trash Hero World

Staying on track: our tool to separate real and false solutions to the plastic crisis

by Seema on 12/07/2021 1 comment

As Trash Heroes, we come across many ideas on how to “solve” plastic pollution. Every week some new technology or product is heralded by the media as the way out of the plastic crisis. And our inboxes are filled with companies requesting to work with us or promote their latest “sustainable initiative”.

It can get confusing, especially with the marketing hype that often surrounds these innovations. Plant plastic! Chemical recycling! Clothes from plastic bottles! Plastic as fuel! Plastic offset! There are, of course, many others.

To understand which measures will really work in the long term, it’s important to look at the bigger picture and put them in the context of a zero waste model. And that’s exactly what we have been doing in the second round of our Zero Waste Communities volunteer training, which ran from May – June 2021 in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The four-part series – again held with the support and expertise of GAIA Asia-Pacific, Let’s Do It Foundation, YPBB Bandung and Zero Waste Europe – looked at the topics of waste separation, greenwashing and the dos and don’ts of recycling at the systemic level. We also started to explore waste as a complex or “wicked” problem, with participants going on to map the issues where they live. With this know-how they will better be able to assess – and eventually address – the waste situation in their local area.

As part of the course content, we created a tool to help anyone evaluate a proposed waste management solution and decide whether or not it was worth pursuing (click on the images above to see it in detail).

Participants used it to assess some popular ideas – and were surprised to discover that most failed the test. Although the conclusions may be uncomfortable, the tool allows people to understand the reasons why these are so-called false solutions. In essence, they do not reduce or prevent waste. They merely offer a delayed or alternative means of disposal, or a different material to throw away. They distract from the problem with quick fixes, rather than deeper, structural change.

In the live sessions, we also learned what would pass the test and be considered a real solution – and that these are often very simple ideas that do not get the same media coverage. It’s part of our mission at Trash Hero to make sure these real solutions are more widely known and adopted.

We’ll publish the full course in four languages on social media and here on this site over the coming weeks. In the meantime, we are sharing the PDF version of the tool here in different languages for anyone to use. We’d love to hear how you get on – ping us @trashheroworld. Please do read the notes before you attempt any assessment, and remember this is only a guide!

False Solutions Tool – English
Petunjuk Solusi Palsu – Bahasa Indonesia
เครื่องมือประเมินแผนการปลอดขยะ – ภาษาไทย

Our thanks to Dr. Enzo Favoino from Zero Waste Europe, Kadri Kalle from Let’s Do It Foundation, Miko Aliño from GAIA Asia-Pacific and Dr. Nattapong Nithi-Uthai of Trash Hero Pattani, whose input in shaping the final version of the tool was invaluable.

The Story of Plastic

by Seema on 22/04/2021 No comments

To celebrate Earth Day, we are sharing this great animated short from The Story of Stuff Project. It is a companion to the feature length documentary, “The Story of Plastic”, released last year.

It shows how litter on beaches and straws in turtles’ noses are just a tiny visible part of the problem with plastic. Discover the rest of the story here – and then check out how you can watch the full documentary.

Encouraging change through tradition in Bali

by Seema on 05/11/2020 No comments

Being a Trash Hero has become a way of life for thousands of volunteers around the world. Our simple and non-confrontational actions to reduce plastic waste can be integrated seamlessly into any cultural setting.

Here is a wonderful example in Bali, where the local Hindu community has made cleanups part of its religious rituals. The connection is powerful: linking sustainable practices with tradition makes them more socially acceptable. It turns “that problem” (external) into “our problem” and eventually “our responsibility”.

This is one of those rare videos where you feel that change happening through the screen. Our thanks to the talented videographer, Johan Wahyudi, who captured it all on Banyu Pinaruh day last year.

Almost 200 volunteers join Trash Hero Family Meetings

by Seema on 11/12/2019 No comments

Trash Hero’s greatest strength is its people. Our volunteers bring the energy, hard work and commitment that our weekly programmes demand. More, they live our values, spreading the message of reducing waste to their families, friends and work colleagues.

Twice a year, we gather these community leaders together in national “family meetings”, hosted by Trash Hero World. The three-day events are held in key countries in Southeast Asia and Europe, where we have a concentration of active chapters. Volunteers are invited to attend, free of charge, to receive training and education, as well as exchange knowledge and ideas with others in their country.

At the recent round of meetings in Oct – Nov 2019, we were able to train 197 volunteers from 95 different chapters. The breakdown by country can be seen below:

Trash Hero Myanmar | 4 – 6 October 2019 in Ngapali

Volunteers trained: 13
Chapters: 7
Many thanks to our sponsors:
– Yoma Cherry Lodge & Mummy Sue: food and tea breaks
– Vera Thomson English School: free meeting room

Trash Hero Indonesia | 11 – 13 October 2019 in Bali

Volunteers trained: 80
Chapters: 40
Many thanks to our sponsors:
– Baliwoso: discounted accommodation
– Paguyuban Saba Driver: discounted transportation
– I Nyoman Parta (Member of People’s Representative Council of Indonesian Republic – Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Republik Indonesia)

Trash Hero Thailand | 19 – 21 October in Bangkok

Volunteers trained: 60
Chapters: 22
Many thanks to our sponsor:
– Ban Nam Pheung Homestay: free meeting room

Trash Hero Malaysia | 25 – 27 October in Mersing

Volunteers trained: 26
Chapters: 17
Many thanks to our sponsors:
– Mohd Faisial Abdul Rani & family: free accommodation / 2 houses
– Majlis Daerah Mersing (Mersing District Council): free meeting room and food
– Sustainable Business Network Association, Malaysia: 2000 MYR cash donation used for other food and transportation costs.

Trash Hero Czech Republic | 8 – 10 November in Prague

Volunteers trained: 18
Chapters: 9
Many thanks to our sponsor:
– Kavárna co hledá jméno : free meeting room

Special mention to Reisebüro Feriezyt, who regularly provide discounted travel for Trash Hero World.

We would also like to thank our volunteers who planned and organised each event; the speakers and workshop leaders who also gave their time for free; and our supporters, whose donations enable us to hold these important meetings twice a year. The total cost for all meetings came to US$27,700, or around US$140 per participant.

Together with these ~200 volunteers who joined (some on their days of annual leave), we were able to strengthen our community base, reinforce quality standards and empower new leaders for the expanding Trash Hero movement around the globe.

Trash Hero Bintulu reaches a new audience

by Seema on 30/07/2019 No comments

The Trash Hero Malaysia network is growing, from four locations in 2017 to more than 20 active today. Let’s hear from the young leaders of one of our newest chapters, Trash Hero Bintulu!

“Last Sunday, our co-leader Jiki was invited as one of the speakers during Bintulu Townhall 2019. During the event we spoke about “Plastic Pollution and How Zero Waste Can Beat This Crisis.” We are immensely thankful to BDA for the opportunity to share with the people of Bintulu.

“We also received a certificate of appreciation for our participation during Gotong-Royong for Hari Sarawak 2019 – the certificate is dedicated to all heroes who joined us during the Cleanup.”

Every week, Trash Hero chapters clean, educate and drive change in their local communities. Every chapter is run by volunteers. Join us or support us today!

Transforming trash into merit at a Thai temple

by Seema on 19/07/2019 No comments

Our Trash Hero chapter in Langsuan, Chumphon Province, Thailand, has come up with an ingenious scheme to motivate local residents to separate and recycle their waste.

In an area with no waste management infrastructure – not even basic garbage collection – most households either dump or openly burn their trash, as they have done for generations. The difference, of course, is that 20 – 30 years ago, the waste was mainly biodegradable. Now, the majority is toxic plastic.

Working together with sub-district adminstrations; local schools; hospitals; private sector representatives; and a local temple, our Trash Hero volunteers created a “waste bank” scheme, launched at an official ceremony on 24 June 2019.

Communal life in this mainly rural area is focused around Wat Ratchaburana, a royal monastery in Tha Maphla sub-district. So the headquarters of the “waste bank” is located here. With the support of the Abbot and the resident monks, the local villagers can bring their separated waste to the temple, or to 9 other collection points – one in each village in the district. Organic waste will be used to make biogas and fertiliser; cleaned plastic will be recycled, with all proceeds going to the temple.

A typical “waste bank”, such as those found in Indonesia, incentivises recycling through personal financial gain. People are encouraged to make “deposits” of their recyclable waste at a central location. Each type of waste carries a market value and is exchanged for a fixed rate. The waste bank administration then sells this trash on to local recyclers and places the income received (minus a small admin fee for running costs) into each person’s account. Records are kept in a “bank book” and withdrawals are allowed at any time.

In Langsuan, this concept has been taken and combined with the Thai Buddhist tradition of “merit-making“. One of the most basic ways to accumulate merit in this culture is to practice almsgiving to local monks. This involves making regular monetary or in-kind donations of food, clothing or household goods. Villagers can now instead donate their trash, and gain the same merit: the slogan of the Langsuan scheme, roughly translated from the Thai, is “Transform a pile of trash into a pile of merit”.

This is a very powerful association, providing an incentive to recycle that goes well beyond the monetary value of the waste. Recycling becomes not just a source of income that can be donated to the temple; but a source of good karma, a virtuous deed that will lead to a better next life for the donors and their families.

In addition, the “deposit days”, on which the bank is open for business, are on the Buddhist holy days, when it is customary to make a special offering to the temple. To make the link even clearer, the name has been changed from “waste bank” to “merit bank” (Thai: ธนาคารบุญ / thanakhan buh!n).

The poster above explains the scheme and shows the nine village collection points

Suttipun Suwanbundit, the leader of Trash Hero Langsuan, explained: “the heart of the issue we have here is that people simply will not separate their waste. It is mixed all together – rotting food and recyclable waste – which makes it impossible to do anything with. The use of law or fines is just not effective for Thai people. There have been big campaigns but then after the initial fuss, people would quietly go back to their old habits. We needed a continuous solution and one that showed people a clear benefit in waste separation, which would give them a reason to do it long term.”

Alongside the merit bank, Trash Hero Langsuan volunteers, in conjunction with the temple and related government departments, will be holding education sessions for local residents on how to reduce waste, in particular plastic. With the endorsement of the Abbot, who carries great authority in these deeply religious rural communities, the scheme has already seen a large uptake.

Trash Hero Langsuan is grateful for the cooperation and support of the District Health Committee, Quality of Life Development Committee, Waste Management Commmittee and all other stakeholders that enabled the project to come to life.

Putting volunteers first

by Seema on 26/06/2019 1 comment

The latest round of Trash Hero Family Meetings drew to a close this week in Zurich, Switzerland. The city was one of two new European locations that hosted our regular team-building, training and networking event for volunteers – the other being in Prague, Czech Republic, earlier this month.

The new additions reflect the rapid growth of Trash Hero within Europe: there are now active chapters not only in Switzerland and the Czech Republic, but also in Serbia and Romania.

Trash Hero Switzerland Family Meeting in Zurich, June 2019

However, the season kicked off in April, back in Southeast Asia where the Trash Hero movement began. Trash Hero Malaysia and Singapore volunteers gathered in Kota Kinabalu from 25 – 27 April, followed by Trash Hero Indonesia teams on 2 – 4 May in Bali. Our Thai chapter leaders met in Khao Lak from 10 – 12 May, while Trash Hero Myanmar hosted their volunteers in Yangon, from 15 – 17 May.

The family meetings have become key engagements in our organisation’s calendar: as a diverse and dispersed network, they provide us with the vital time and space for immersive, face to face communication that helps to equip and motivate volunteers for the coming months. They are normally held twice a year: in April – May and October – November.

Trash Hero Indonesia volunteers clean up with a local school at their family meeting in Bali, May 2019

This time, alongside our usual activities, our chapter leaders learned how to carry out “brand audits” during their cleanups, recording the volume of the plastic packaging we regularly pick up, as well as the companies who manufacture it. The data collected over the coming year will be provided to our partner organisations, who can use it to push for systemic change in the production and disposal of single use plastic.

Members of the Break Free From Plastic coalition, who are driving corporate campaigns and global policy change, kindly joined us in Thailand to help with this important training, as we increasingly focus on connecting our communities’ experience of plastic pollution to the bigger picture.

The Break Free From Plastic team helped to train our Thai volunteers in Khao Lak, May 2019

Below are some video highlights from the recent events in Southeast Asia and Czech Republic, created entirely by the volunteers who attended them.

[Czech language only]

In total, 213 chapter leaders from 93 locations were able to join this series of family meetings – more than 90% of our global network. The total cost for all six meetings (the majority of which last 2 – 3 full days) was under $29,500, or around $138 per volunteer. This includes travel, accommodation and food for all participants, including the Trash Hero World team and external speakers. We are very grateful for the many hours of work donated in kind, as well as the monetary donations, that allow us to organise these events and continue investing in our volunteers and the amazing work they are doing around the world.

Trash Hero in the Antarctic

by Seema on 21/05/2019 1 comment

A recent trip to the southernmost waters of the World Ocean uncovers tons of rubbish and provides inspiration for a Trash Hero.

Trash Hero Czech Republic volunteer and artist, Veronika Podlasova, visited Nelson Island with the Czech Antarctic Research Programme in February this year, as one of a team of six who spent several weeks cleaning the snow and rocks of the plastic and other debris that had been swept in by ocean currents.

In total, they collected and audited 11 cubic metres – almost 6 metric tons! – of trash: a mix of plastics, metal, wood and hazardous waste such as batteries. All the rubbish was transported to Chile, where it was separated for recycling and safer disposal.

The whole experience was documented by Veronika, who has taken her notes, sketches, photographs and some organic material (discarded scientific samples) to create a series of artworks, including an installation. They will be shown at an exhibition in Prague this summer to educate and engage people on the issues of waste and climate change.

Below, she explains how her encounter with Antartica inspired her.

“Throughout my childhood, I was terrified of water. But all that changed when I saw my first glacier. When I stepped on the ground of King George Island. I stopped breathing for a bit. Everything was overwhelming, I had mixed feelings for several days. When I saw research stations and a human activity everywhere, I started to feel guilty for being there without scientific reason.

“While I cleared the substantial garbage and detritus off the beaches of Nelson Island, I felt the desire to document and to create what I saw even more. The trash was mainly from the fishing boats, tourist boats and of course from the surrounding continents. After work I used to go for wanders around the island. Seeing glaciers, seeing icebergs and seeing that beautiful blue void left a huge mark on my soul. I felt even more pressure to create an art piece that would evoke the same emotions as I had. I wanted to create an art piece that would wake people up to look after our planet better.”

“The Antarctic is a fabulous but extremely distant place for most of us. It’s hard to realise how fundamentally important it is for the balance and thriving of the planet’s ecosystem.

“In my art work, the viewer experiences the absence of ice through watercolours. Water in the state of ice is so powerful, yet extremely fragile. These pieces focus on the melting of ice and the beauty of crystallized forms in glaciers – I am creating a memory of what is disappearing. Ultimately, I want it to educate, engage, and connect people to their surroundings so that their thoughts can turn into action.

Veronika hopes that the message of how ocean pollution is accelerating climate change – communicated through art, rather than “dry facts and statistics” – will bridge the gap between science, emotion and action.

The project is timely: new research into the impact of plastic production and pollution on climate change has just been published, which establishes a clear link between the twin crises facing our planet.

For more information about the upcoming exhibition in Nová Radnice, Prague, and to see more of Veronika’s work, please visit: https://veronikapodlasova.wordpress.com/

Veronika would also like to express her gratitude for the kind cooperation of the scientists and Masaryk University, who made this trip possible.

Zero Waste Ramadan

by Seema on 09/05/2019 No comments

Many of our chapters across Southeast Asia are observing the holy month of Ramadan, which started on 5 May.

Cleanups for the most part have been suspended as communities will be fasting during daylight hours. However, our volunteers are still very active! The main focus is on the daily “Ramadan markets”, which provide easy, takeaway food for people who do not wish to cook during this time, as well as special treats only found during this month.

Usually a visit to the market will result in an average of 8 – 10 single-use plastic bags being used, along with an array of hard plastic boxes, cups and straws. All will end up in landfill, or worse.

On social media, and out on the streets, chapters in Malaysia and the south of Thailand have been encouraging shoppers to bring their own containers and bags for all food and drink purchases, to cut down on waste.

Trash Hero Pattani, together with Plogging Pattani are running a competition where people have to snap a photo of themselves at a market with their tiffin box, tupperware, resuable bag or cup and hashtag ‪#‎ramadanchallenge1440‬ to win their own Trash Hero t-shirt. You can join the challenge on Facebook.

Trash Hero Langkawi volunteers, meanwhile, are engaging shoppers at their local market, by bringing their own food containers and carrier bags for buying their breaking fast food. The idea is to set a good example, as well as start a conversation about waste and how to reduce plastic usage.

Their efforts have been reported in the New Straits Times and on local television.

We wish all of our Muslim volunteers a peaceful and blessed Ramadan.

Microplastics in Maya Bay!

by Seema on 10/04/2019 No comments

Maya Bay is famous throughout the world: first as “The Beach” in the Leonardo Dicaprio movie of the same name and, more recently, as the beach that was closed to the public due to excessive damage from tourist traffic.

Trash Hero Koh Phi Phi had the privilege of holding a recent cleanup on the now deserted beach, by invitation of the Marine National Park Research Centre 3 and the head of the Maya Bay Rehabillitation Project, Supaporn Prempee.

Together with the National Park rangers and Ocean Quest, an international NGO who are overseeing the coral nursery program in the bay, 26 volunteers carried out the first ever microplastic survey on the beach.

“Despite the beach having been cleaned of all visible debris several times since the closure in June 2018, we were able to find 1.5kg of micro plastic particles [small pieces < 5mm in length], in an area of 150sqm [30m x 5m],” said Caroline Lecky from the local Trash Hero team.

That’s thousands of buried pieces of plastic, mostly invisible to the naked eye as you walk along the sand. The majority of these were “secondary microplastics”, or fragments of larger plastic items such as bottles and foam boxes that have broken down in the sun and ocean currents. Plastic never biodegrades. There are likely to be more, even finer particles that slipped through the sieves.

Anuar Abdullah, the founder of Ocean Quest, said of the micro plastic survey that: “the data will be saved and we will do regular sifting of the designated area to see if there is any reduction.”

In total, the team collected and removed 308kg of trash from the stunning Thai beach.

Thanks to Blue View Divers and also Barakuda Diving, who sponsored the transport and cleaning materials for the day, and to David and Parn for the beautiful video. Our thanks also to the Maya Beach Protection Unit 5 (National Park) for hosting Trash Hero, providing fruit and refreshments and joining the cleanup.