We are delighted to launch the Trash Hero edition of #tasini and #inibags, as part of our ongoing Bottles & Bags programme. The bags are a collaboration with the social enterprise Making Oceans Plastic Free, with the idea of reusing plastic bottles to help reduce plastic bag waste.
The branded resuable shoppers come in two versions: in a plain yellow pouch (Inibag) or with a cute turtle pouch (Tasini), to promote awareness of the ecosystem we want to protect.
⭐️ With this bag you save two✌️ plastic bottles from polluting the environment 👉 Each Bag is made from 2 recycled plastic bottles ♻️!
⭐️ Handmade in Indonesia!
⭐️ Attached to a keychain 🔑 so you won’t forget your reusable bag any more. Save 💯s of plastic bags each year!
⭐️ And the #tasini Trash Hero Turtle 🐢 helps you spread the message of awareness about plastic pollution and inspire the change in people around you!
Bags are distributed at cost by our chapters in Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Switzerland, New York and Finland. Get in touch with your nearest chapter for more information.
Fourth grader Henry Adelson is a volunteer with Trash Hero New York. This year, he hopes his fellow classmates will join him in cleaning up the Hudson River.
My name is Henry Adelson, and I am 9 years old and going into the fourth grade. I live in New York City and go to the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, which is a few blocks from the Hudson River. Thank you for letting me share how I got involved in volunteering with an organization called Trash Hero and my plan to help them clean up New York City.
When I was in the third grade, my dad introduced me to his friend Denise Rehrig. Denise and her husband are the founders of Trash Hero New York. They learned about Trash Hero in Asia while they were traveling the world, and I learned about it from them. Trash Hero tries to keep trash from going into the water where it can be very bad for the environment. They liked it so much they asked if they could start Trash Hero in NYC.
Volunteers meet at the Hudson River a few blocks from my school once a month. I volunteered and picked up garbage along the Hudson with about 50 others just before summer vacation. We all did this to keep garbage from going into the Hudson. I was at camp this summer so couldn’t volunteer, but I’ll be back in September — and I’m bringing friends!
Trash Hero New York mobilizes volunteers to take action to keep their community, including its waterways, clean
Trash Hero is important to me for many reasons. When I was in the third grade, I studied all about the Hudson River and how the native Americans relied on the Hudson for their food and drinking water. My science teacher Barbara rents out an oyster trap in the river for the third grade, and we study all about these oysters and the importance of clean water. When I volunteered with Trash Hero, I could see our class’s oyster trap, so I was helping our oysters.
We learned that when Henry Hudson (who the Hudson River is named after) landed in New York there were so many oysters in the river, but now there are much fewer. The work Trash Hero is doing will help them come back. The more people who help keep the river clean, the better it will be for the millions of people who live near the river. It’s my dream that one day that if we all pitch in to keep the Hudson clean, we’ll be able to swim, fish, and do all sorts of other activities in and around the river.
Henry with a friend at the Trash Hero New York cleanup in September
Trash Hero can help my dream come true. I plan on helping Trash Hero by:
1) volunteering on cleanup days every time I get the chance,
2) asking friends to pitch in and join me,
3) asking my principal Rob if I can hang up posters with Trash Hero volunteer schedules,
4) once school starts in September, by telling our third grade science teacher Barbara about Trash Hero since it is helping our oysters.
Thank you again for letting me tell my story about Trash Hero as part of the Renewal Project, and thanks to the guys at Next Gen Summit for telling me and my dad about it.
Henry Adelson, August 2018
This story first appeared on The Renewal Project, Allstate’s platform to support local problem solvers who are strengthening their neighborhoods block by block. Sign up for their newsletter.
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Following this lovely story, Roman Peter, co-founder of Trash Hero World, sent Henry one of our kids’ books, and earlier this month he received a reply:
We love you too, Henry, and Trash Hero kids the world over, who are inspiring us all to take action for a cleaner world.
Only 2 square kilometres in size, the “Robinson Crusoe” paradise of Gili Meno is the smallest of the three Gili Islands off the coast of Lombok in Indonesia.
It was here, in February 2015, that Trash Hero Gili Meno was founded. Fringed by an idyllic white sand beach around its entire perimeter, the island was under attack on all sides from floating ocean plastic. And, as is common on the archipelago, there was no waste management infrastructure, and no space for landfill, so islanders used open burning as the means of disposing of their trash.
Within a couple of years, the Trash Hero Gili Meno team had motivated their fellow residents to find solutions to these problems. Every business on the island now supports the Sunday cleanups, which are also attended by most of the island’s children.
The growing passion for zero waste among chapter leaders Sulman Alfarizi Ali and Samsul “Adi” Hadi [pictured, left] eventually lead them to give up their full time jobs in tourism earlier this year and found the Brotherhood Recycling and Education Centre. Now they work on improving their community’s waste management, focusing on reduction, reuse and recycling.
The entire Brotherhood Centre is made from salvaged waste, from the bottle walls, to can and plastic bag decorations. Workshops are held to teach people recycling skills, such as how to turn empty bottles into drinking glasses by hand, using low-tech tools; any broken glass is crushed and turned into building material.
Bamboo straws and cleaning brushes are produced from locally grown plants and sold to local bars to replace plastic.
Their ecobrick initiative offers islanders rice in exchange for plastic bottles filled with non-recyclable trash, which provides an incentive not to burn the toxic material. The bottles are then used in construction projects around the community.
“I really want to look after my island,” says Sulman. “I felt that on Gili Meno sometimes we just look at money only. It was sad for me to see that everywhere there was trash and plastic, and people burning it. I think soon nobody is going to visit any more and then the money is gone… so better we clean and take care and then everyone will want to come to this beautiful place. We make it sustainable.
“Trash Hero does not give us any money but we get a lot of training and support from them. And things like t-shirts, books and bottles help to promote our activities and motivate the people to join us.”
In August 2018, a series of devastating earthquakes hit Indonesia, with the 7.0 magnitude tremor on the evening of Sunday 5 August ravaging the Gili Islands and northern Lombok. The death toll from these events, including the aftershocks that continued for weeks after, stands at 563; and more than 400,000 people lost their homes in the disaster.
In Gili Meno, around 75% of the infrastructure was destroyed.
“The earthquake had a huge detrimental effect on the island, not only in terms of buildings, but people lost their livelihoods because there was no tourism. But the local community did not for one second give up. In order to get the tourists back, and in order to maintain a sense of routine for their kids and their lives, they decided to keep the island clean – to make sure not only the tourists could enjoy it, but the local community as well,” explains Sarah Kursheed, a dive instructor based on the island.
So the Trash Hero Sunday cleanups went on and became a focus for the community rebuilding process. Life slowly got back to normal.
The community even participated in World Cleanup Day on 15 September 2018, with the support of Trash Hero, though many were still living in makeshift camps.
“Since after the earthquake it is a little hard for us,” admits Adi. “We have to start from the beginning, but slowly we will grow again and do more.”
Watch how Trash Hero Gili Meno is regenerating their island in the aftermath of the Indonesian earthquakes:
Trash Hero World co-founder, Roman Peter, visited the island in November 2018 and was amazed at the spirit he found. “It’s inspirational to me how they have got through this disaster together. It was especially moving to see how the Trash Hero activities gave the kids some much needed structure after the trauma of losing their homes. The focus on reducing and reusing waste is stronger than ever and we will do everything we can to support them in this.”
See for yourself in the resulting short movie, above: filmed entirely on site in November, mere months after the earthquake, the strength and motivation of Trash Hero Gili Meno is an inspiration to us all.
Hopefully, it is also clear from the video that the island is once again open for tourists, and is as safe and beautiful as ever – go visit and be amazed!
On 5 June 2018, Trash Hero Switzerland had the opportunity to present to some of XL Catlin’s staff at one of their “lunch and learn” sessions in Zurich. We had a very engaged audience and introduced them to the work Trash Hero does worldwide and also to our Trash Hero @ Work program.
The following week, we also had the opportunity to take part in Zurich Insurance’s Community Week. We introduced staff from Zurich’s International Programs team to the work Trash Hero does worldwide and also to our Trash Hero @ Work program. Afterwards they rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in with a very productive clean-up along the Limmat and Sihl rivers in Zürich.
28 people took part in the cleanup and we collected 140 kg of trash (pictured above). We had a really great time with Zurich Insurance and found their engagement very inspiring.
The Trash Hero @ Work program will support your company in reducing the amount of waste you produce, and award Trash Hero certification upon successful implementation of our waste-saving measures. The program fosters cooperation and strengthens team spirit, as well as enhancing your “green credentials” with your customers, employees and suppliers.
Update September 2021: Trash Hero @ Work is no longer running.
Our friends over at The Whale Company are currently carrying out a 300 kilometer mission to deliver “a message in a bottle” to the UK Parliament about the rising tide of plastic pollution.
The team is stand-up paddling its way along the famed UK river route – from source to sea – aboard their trademark plastic bottle boards. Along the journey they’re stopping by local communities to conduct workshops and clean-ups, visit schools and constituencies, and collect letters from the public urging their government leaders to prioritize the fight against plastic pollution. The “message in a bottle” will be delivered to Parliament on June 26, just before completion of the 300 km stretch.
The Whale Company travels the world aboard SUP boards made entirely of plastic bottles removed from the environment. Check their website for detailed how-to guides on creating your own SUP board!
Follow their journey on their website or Facebook page, and check out their route.
“It’s been great to see public awareness of plastic pollution growing, but we need our politicians to stop dragging their heels and act now,” said Carolyn Newton, co-founder of The Whale Company. “The longer we delay in taking action, the more difficult it will be for our oceans and waterways to recover from the damage we’re causing through not only our plastic use, but also our poor recycling rates.”
Currently, just 24% of the five million tons of plastic used in the UK each year is recycled.
Founders Carlos de Sousa and Carolyn Newton are no strangers to plastic pollution, having travelled the world making SUPs out of plastic bottles and completing 12 marathon paddles in 12 countries across Europe in 2017 on their Bottle Boards.
Carolyn and Carlos, founders of The Whale Company, discuss the goals of their journey with the BBC
Education is an important part of their philosophy, which led to the creation of their Bottle Boards workshops. By talking about how to use plastic waste in a different way and highlighting the problem to children and teenagers, Carlos and Carolyn hope to inspire the next generation.
Ahead of their Source to Sea paddle they have given several assemblies in schools and ran a Bottle Boards workshop at the Barnes Children’s Literature Festival, resulting in their first expedition board produced with the help of more than 200 kids.
Along their route, The Whale Company is stopping by local communities, schools, and constituencies to spread their message and collect letters to Parliament from members of the public
For more information about their epic paddle, their plastic bottle SUPs or their efforts to promote more sustainable lifestyles, contact Carolyn Newton on 07870685994, visit their Facebook page, or send a message to supmarathon@gmail.com.
A recent report by “Zero Waste Europe” and “FOE Europe” reveals that the rise in plastic food packaging in Europe is failing to reduce the continent’s growing food waste problem, and in some cases may even be fueling it.
The study, titled Unwrapped: how throwaway plastic is failing to solve Europe’s food waste problem (and what we need to do instead), was conducted over a 10 year period between 2004 – 2014 and demonstrated that in this time, household food waste doubled to an estimated 30 million tones per year, while plastic packaging waste increased by 50%, at 15 million tonnes. According to the report, the data suggests that almost half of plastic waste is directly from food packaging.
These levels of waste are not only expensive – estimated at a €143 billion loss for the EU annually, the same amount as its annual operational budget – but are highly problematic for both waste management and the environment. Plastic packaging is often touted as a solution to avoid food waste, but this landmark study indicates exactly the opposite – plastic waste is nearly always thrown away after its first use, and levels of food waste across the region are at all-time-high levels. What’s more, the report investigated other consequences of plastic wrapping, such as the growing risk to consumers from chemical migration into the body.
The problem is complex and entrenched, however, and the challenges of food waste and plastic packaging waste are best tackled together by evolving our view of plastic in the food industry. The study’s authors draw several recommendations that begin with simple acknowledgement of the issue, and revolve around changing our communal attitude to our relationships with plastic and food waste.
Develop a holistic, evidence-based approach to the role of plastic packaging in the food system
Policymakers must review legislation to assess and address gaps
Use market-based instruments to prompt behavioral change
Provide greater investment and funding for waste prevention systems
While high-level action can guide the way, tackling the problem of waste in our everyday lives is up to individual choice and action. Households can change their purchasing and consumption behaviors and implement reusable approaches to food preservation, and choose to purchase groceries and other items from responsible and environmentally-minded businesses.
Check out the full report, available here in Danish, Spanish, English, French, and German to learn more about this groundbreaking study and what its authors believe is the best way forward.
Many countries around the world have banned the use of polystyrene – also commonly known as styrofoam – because of its extremely negative environmental impact.
For years the material was a popular packaging for food items, electronics, furniture, and disposables because of its light weight, low expense, and wide availability. However, the material is essentially non-biodegradable meaning it can take hundreds or even thousands of years to decompose, and can also easily break apart into little bits that are ingested by animals and sea life. What’s more, both the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) have classified polystyrene as a possible human carcinogen.
Polystyrene is one of the most difficult nonrenewable materials to responsibly dispose of. Its light weight and bulkiness means it easily travels around via wind or waves.
In 2016, the Thai Office of Consumer Protection Board (OCPB) launched its Safety Without Polystyrene Foam in Food Packaging project to encourage the domestic food industry to quit using the product in its packaging. The government has also been open to discussions about subsidizing more sustainable alternatives for vendors like cardboard. The subsequent reduction nationwide has been dramatic in some areas, but our Trash Heroes continue to collect vast amounts of the discarded material washing up on the beach. The point source is almost impossible to estimate, as winds can waves can easily carry the lightweight chunks over hundreds of kilometers of ocean.
Trash Hero Koh Lanta meets every Sunday at 4:00PM at Long Beach park to preserve this stunning paradise.
Even when collected polystyrene is incredibly difficult to dispose of responsibly, especially considering that it’s usually quite bulky. So our heroes on Koh Lanta rose to the challenge and found this creative way to up-cycle the waste while making ultra-cosy bean bag chairs for lounging around after an afternoon clean!
With a little ingenuity and creative spirit, the team built this polystyrene shredder that easily breaks those large chunks down into useable pieces perfect for stuffing plush bean bag chairs. It’s a great answer to taking a local challenge and turning it into a cheap, new indulgence for their paradise.
Trash Hero Koh Lanta developed a polystyrene crusher to help dispose of the chunks they collect during cleanups, and create awesome new additions to their beachfront!
While these awesome methods help manage our waste in the present, the best option is to always aim to reduce our single-use waste in our everyday lives. Shop for items that aren’t wrapped in plastic and carry your own reusable containers and cutlery to limit the need for single-use takeaway items. It’s these small changes on the individual level that can help us all ensure a beautiful future.
What local waste challenges does your community face, and what sort of ways have you found to manage it?
Many people have commented on the beautiful illustrations in the book and indeed, we chose our artist for her evocative, sensitive treatment of the story, rather than the cartoon style so often seen in children’s environmental stories.
Here, we want to share with you Ewelina’s own story of how she came to the project.
*DREAMS COME TRUE*
“This project is very important to me, it’s very close to my heart, so I want to tell you the story how it all started for me. Maybe later you will become a part of the project too :).
I’m in love with nature, underwater life or forests are sacred for me. But these places are in danger.
Once I was swimming on the coral reefs and I saw an amazing, impressive giant blue starfish. I swam just a bit further and something blue took my attention again. I expected to see another beautiful animal, but what I found was just a blue plastic bag. Oh my, it was such a sad view. At moment like this you just want to cry. You are aware you are in such amazing world, but this world will disappear if we do not care enough.
After this experience I had a very specific dream – I dreamed about picking up trash in Bali!
In the beginning I felt little ashamed to tell it to anyone, my mom could have said “Hey kid, you should do bigger things than collecting trash!”. So I kept it secret for a while 😉
One year later I decided to move to Bali and it was the best time to realise the dream!
But of course I would feel awkward to do this alone. So I was ready to write an advertisement to find other crazy people to join me in this adventure. Then I found out about Trash Hero! First we were only three people, but after few months the group grew bigger, even kids from local schools were involved.
When I returned to Poland, a dear Balinese friend told me that Trash Hero World had the idea how to explain other kids why it’s important to take care of our world, and they looked for an illustrator. I applied for the contest. I wanted to take part in a project that is so close to my heart. I love this world and I want to make it better.
Together with Trash Hero we have prepared a wonderful, very inspiring book that stimulates the sensitivity of children to the surrounding world. I believe this book is giving important lessons of loving our planet and has to reach all children all over the globe, starting in Asia.”
Ewelina Wajgert is a Polish graphic artist, who graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. Follow Ewelina here: https://www.facebook.com/wajgert/
Did you know that you might be accidentally flushing plastic into the environment every time you brush your teeth?
These tiny ocean invaders, called microplastics, are small bits of polyethylene plastic added to many health and beauty products. They replace traditionally sustainable exfoliants because of cost and ease of manufacturing.
Source: The Science Explorer
The problem is that these microplastics easily pass through filtration systems and ultimately wind up in the ocean or other water sources. There, they eaten by animals and quickly and travel up the food chain through bioaccumulation, even into our food sources.
The good news is that this is a pretty easy problem for us to fix together simply by understanding what is in the products that we buy. When choosing personal care products, look for one of the five signatory ingredients:
Polyethylene (PE)
Polypropylene (PP)
Polythylene terephthalate (PET)
Polymethy methcrylate (PMMA)
Nylon
It’s simple. Choose products that do not contain any of these ingredients and know that you’re keeping a little more plastic from entering the environment!
To make matters even easier, there’s a free App available in many countries (and counting!) called Beat the Microbead. Developed by the North Sea Foundation and the Plastic Soup Foundation, the App can scan a product’s barcode to check if microbeads are included in its production. Beat the Microbead also offers product lists by country to help you identify and choose products that do not contain microplastics.
This month, UN spokesman for the UN’s Secretary-General Stéphane Dujarric was granted a certificate of honorary citizenship to an area that hopes to become the world’s 196th nation – the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or formally known today as The Trash Isles. He’ll join the ranks of other citizens like Al Gore (the first applicant) and actress Judi Dench.
Source: LADbible
The movement to designate the France-sized garbage patch as its own nation was spurred by advocates from the Plastics Oceans Foundation and UK-based entertainment company LADbible. Today it boasts its own flag, passport, currency (appropriately called ‘debris’), and more than 140,000 “citizens” from countries spanning the globe, making The Trash Isles the 25th-smallest country in the world.
The “country” hopes to be the latest member to the United Nations. As a member-country, the other 193 UN nations would be compelled to help clean up the new nation per the UN’s charter.
Source: LADbible
The Trash Isles itself is actually a massive soup of floating microplastics, which renders it incredibly tricky to clean up and severely dangerous to the ecosystem. Through bioaccumulation, these microplastics have a good chance of winding up in our food supply, harming marine life along the way.
The campaign, and its vast multinational participation, draws attention to the enormity of our waste problem and the fact that it is our collective responsibility to mitigate and remedy it.
So what can you do?
We can stop adding to the problem by limiting our use of single-use plastics and employing sustainable alternatives, like Trash Hero bottles and bags.
Pick up trash in your community, either on your own or find a cleanup in your area.
Separate your trash. Recycle what is possible for your area, and find ways to use items that are non-recyclable.
Encourage others to also develop sustainable habits.
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The growing passion for zero waste among chapter leaders Sulman Alfarizi Ali and Samsul “Adi” Hadi [pictured, left] eventually lead them to give up their full time jobs in tourism earlier this year and found the Brotherhood Recycling and Education Centre. Now they work on improving their community’s waste management, focusing on reduction, reuse and recycling.
So the Trash Hero Sunday cleanups went on and became a focus for the community rebuilding process. Life slowly got back to normal.
The following week, we also had the opportunity to take part in Zurich Insurance’s Community Week. We introduced staff from Zurich’s International Programs team to the work Trash Hero does worldwide and also to our Trash Hero @ Work program. Afterwards they rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in with a very productive clean-up along the Limmat and Sihl rivers in Zürich.
