Impact | Trash Hero World

World’s Top Polluters Revealed by Break Free from Plastic’s 2019 Brand Audit

by Leslie Finlay on 24/10/2019 No comments

This week, Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) released their second global brand audit, Branded Vol. II: Identifying the World’s Top Corporate Plastic Polluters.

On 2019’s World Clean Up Day held September 21, more than 72 thousand volunteers from 51 countries around the world collected 476,423 pieces of plastic from coastlines, riversides, and within their communities – 43% of which were marked with a clear consumer brand.

In 2019, BFFP had over seven times as many volunteers contribute to this brand audit as it did in 2018, recording twice the amount of single-use plastic.

The Top 3 Global Polluters are the same as those from 2018: Coca Cola, Nestlé, and Pepsico.

The other seven companies the brand audit identified as top plastic polluters include: Mondelez International, Unilever, Mars, Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Philips Morris International, and Perfetti van Melle.

World Cleanup Day volunteers recorded the branded waste collected as they cleaned their communities, submitting a combined 484 audits to Break Free From Plastic. The Trash Heroes of Indonesia were even awarded a silver medal in recognition of their 7,520 volunteers!

The volunteers in Ambon, Indonesia were hit with a 6.5-magnitude earthquake and evacuated from their homes – and yet still retrieved their brand audits to submit their data to BFFP, a true, inspiring commitment to these heroes fighting to improve their communities and move toward a waste-free future.

Such brand audits are a powerful tool for holding consumer goods companies accountable for their role in the global plastic waste problem, revealing just how widespread and damaging their throwaway plastic business model has become.

“There is a great need to better understand the sources and priority products that contribute to plastic pollution closer to the source, so we can better intervene on solutions,” the BFFP report says.

For the second year in a row, Coca Cola came is as the #1 global polluter. In just one day, an incredible 11,732 branded Coca Cola plastics were collected and recorded – more than the next three top global polluters combined. In the past, Coca Cola has attempted to address its role in the plastic pollution crisis by promoting plastic packaging using plastic collected from the ocean, or using plastic bottles made from plants, or bioplastics. But these “solutions” merely reinforce the myth that single-use plastic can be sustainable.

According to the report, the #2 polluter, Nestlé, has announced its commitment to making all of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025 – but with no clear plan for reducing the total amount of single-use plastics it produces. The company sells over a billion products a day in single-use plastic. In spite of these claims, on the shores of Lake Geneva, home to Nestlé’s global headquarters, Greenpeace Switzerland volunteers collected 1,124 plastic items in just two hours on World Cleanup Day.

Unilever, the #5 plastic polluter, has promised to reduce its role as a plastic polluter by using chemical recycling, according to BFFP’s report. This technology, however, is unproven, extremely energy intensive, and its adoption on a large scale is completely unfeasible.

These pivots and marketed alternatives made by global brands are ignoring the primary issue – we need to reduce our dependence on plastic altogether, and that starts at the source with these primary producers.

Overall, the most common types of plastics collected throughout the audit included:

PET plastics – clear or tinted plastic often used in drink bottles, cups, and pouches
HDEP plastics – white or coloured plastic
PVC plastics – hard or rubbery plastic used in building materials, toys, and shower curtains

We can make more sustainable choices as individuals, but the consumer is not fully responsible.

For years, the corporate narrative has been that plastic pollution is a problem caused by individual consumers. False solutions like recycling, incineration, and bioplastics are rampantly promoted, but fail to address the real problem – constant, large scale production.

The report addresses that in many cases, across many communities, it’s simply impossible to avoid plastic in our everyday lives. The responsibility simply cannot fall entirely on individual consumer choices. We have a powerful global plastics industry that plans to quadruple plastic production by 2050, meaning the environmental, social justice, and health threats associated with such high levels of plastic waste will increase dramatically.

“Plastic is not a litter problem, it is a pollution problem, and it starts as soon as the plastic is made,” the BFFP report states. “Faced with no choice but plastic packaging, people are forced to be complicit in the plastic pollution crisis.”

In the report, Break Free from Plastic also discussed zero-waste and policy solutions designed to address this systemic plastic production problem.

Highlights include examples of cities and organisations using surveys, audits, and citizen science methods to understand their local waste problem and demand that suppliers of plastic products take accountability for their role in unsustainable waste – as well as governments that set the policies to regulate these companies

Inspiring examples of community-led change from the audit include:

Tacloban City, a highly urbanised area in central Philippines, is well on its way to becoming a Zero Waste model city. In partnership with the Filipino non-profit organisation the Mother Earth Foundation, the city launched intensive house-to-house information, education, and communication campaigns about waste management and separation.
The 5 Gyres Institute in North America conducted scientific expeditions to study the global estimate of microplastics in the world’s oceans. The findings contributed to the eventual banning of plastic microbeads in America through the Microbeads Free Waters Act.
In Guatemala, a university student worked with local organisations to pressure the local government to rethink its policies toward single use plastic. Later that year, the Mayor placed a ban on the sale and use of straws, plastic bags, and polystyrene products. The municipality then ran campaigns to promote the use of traditional packaging like maxan leaves, sugarcane baskets, and reusable dishware and utensils, providing items throughout the community and its businesses.

Examples like these, and many others included in the full report, highlight how no matter where in the world you live, community power – and creating a culture of accountability – can lead to powerful, lasting change toward a plastic waste-free future.

Check out the full report and brand audit from Break Free From Plastic to learn more.

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.

Trash Hero Bangkok Joins Thai Stakeholders and the UNEP to Innovate Market-Based Solutions for Marine Litter Reduction

by Leslie Finlay on 10/06/2019 No comments

Last week, Trash Hero Bangkok joined regional stakeholders at a United Nations Environmental Programme-led conference in Bangkok dedicated to tackling the transboundary challenge of marine litter.

Globally, more than 80 percent of plastic marine debris comes from land-based sources. And in Asia, both rapid development and economic success has strained waste management – an issue that these stakeholders believe can be remedied by inter-sector collaboration together with galvanized public support.

Conference stakeholders gather to kick off discussions on reducing marine litter | Source: Thai Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment

Trash Heroes in Thailand have been coordinating this grassroots energy since 2013, forging community awareness of our individual roles within the global waste problem. Through action-based efforts like clean-ups and issue-focused education, Trash Hero Thailand has been a leading force to develop the public salience necessary for successful waste and plastic management to take root – to the tune of more than 79,500 volunteers educated and keeping nearly 600,000 kilograms of trash from entering the Thai marine ecosystems to date.

This new initiative led by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) called ‘The Southeast Asia Circular – solving plastic pollution at source’ connects nonprofit leaders like Trash Hero together with local government agencies, private sector representatives, and academic experts to collaborate toward market-based solutions and policies that reduce plastic production, waste, and mitigate its threats to the environment.

Source: UN Environment

Market-based conservation solutions are those that rely on the use of economic principles to achieve beneficial environmental outcomes. Research demonstrates that such approaches encourages environmental stewardship and fosters knowledge-based conservation, and successful policy comes from deliberately connecting producers and consumers. This can involve the creation of ecological markets, promoting education and public awareness, and coordinating competitors and their resources within the marketplace under a common, ecologically-driven goal.

Innovative solutions that stand to reduce marine waste are those that span the whole plastic value chain, starting with what the UNEP calls a “people-centred approach.” Through projects that support vulnerable groups impacted by plastic waste and prioritizing public education, Trash Hero has helped lay the groundwork for such coordination across the value chain through initiatives like its reusable bottles and bags project. In Thailand alone, Trash Hero has reduced upwards of 25 million plastic bottles and 6.5 million plastic bags by promoting and providing sustainable alternatives among Thais and tourists alike.

Trash Heroes in Bangkok

Such action has helped inspire complementary regulatory action: the Thai government recently announced it will phase out seven types of plastic between 2019 and 2022, with the ultimate goal of achieving a waste-free economy by 2027. This is in concert with other strategies like that of the Food and Drug Administration of Thailand, which is revising restrictions on the use of plastic in items like food packaging.

Bangkok Trash Hero Warawat Sabhavasu participated in the Stakeholder & Engagement breakout discussion, where he showcased local success stories of the progress Trash Heroes have made in the region. The UN highlighted this work in its closing ceremony, commending the action-based change Trash Heroes stand for.

Trash Hero at the UNEP Stakeholder & Engagement break out discussion

Conference stakeholders framed additional sustainability-driven solutions within the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, guided by a sufficiency economy philosophy that prioritizes balanced development and community resilience. This focus highlights how the success of innovative solutions – like green operating principles presented by Coca-Cola Thailand Ltd. and IKEA Southeast Asia, or circular economic strategies laid out by local government officials – is grounded in the work of Trash Heroes building public awareness, support, and grassroots action.

Trash Heroes in Myanmar Integral to Nation’s Ambitions for a Sustainable Future

by Leslie Finlay on 05/06/2019 1 comment

Our Trash Heroes in Myanmar met President U Win Myint at a World Environment Day event in Nay Pyi Taw. The President was originally introduced to Trash Hero in 2018, then honoring the growing national movement and its local chapters for their fantastic work, and for promoting the spirit of sustainability within their individual communities.

Trash Hero Myanmar Updates President U Win Myint on the year’s project successes

Addressing more than 400 stakeholders representing state and regional ministries, academic institutions, businesses, and special interest groups, the President urged the Burmese people to look at their own relationships with waste in their everyday lives. His message mirrored the spirit of the Trash Hero mission: that lasting, high-level change occurs from collective adjustments to our mindset and behaviours.

The President’s message is supported by a record of growing public action and awareness against waste. Myanmar’s first Trash Hero community clean was organized in Yangon in July 2016, coordinating 135 volunteers who collected more than 400 kg of rubbish. Today, Trash Hero Myanmar has expanded to 10 national chapters, who together have collected 46,517 kilograms of trash with the help of almost 17,000 volunteers – more than 5,000 of which are children.

The President’s support for movements like Trash Hero is predicated on a national ambition to develop the country as a climate-resilient, low-carbon, low-waste society.

Trash Hero Myanmar has grown quickly with 10 national chapters actively reducing the waste problem in their communities

He announced two new policies that recognize the increasing threat of extreme weather and other climate change impacts this economic and social development. These policies – called the National Environmental Policy and the Myanmar Climate Change Policy – recognize the need for collaboration among ministries, civil society, businesses, and academia. But the President also highlights the importance of public participation – through initiatives like Trash Hero – to establish a sustainable national mindset.

“I would like to urge Myanmar citizens, including all of you, to participate for the current and future sustainable development of our country by changing your daily lifestyles in order to support environmental conservation,” he said while addressing participants at the World Environment Day event.

The Heroes of Trash Hero Myanmar in Action!

Leatherback turtles return to nest in Trash Hero Khao Lak’s community!

by Seema on 30/12/2018 2 comments

For the first time in five years, leatherback turtles have laid eggs on Thai shores.

Leatherbacks are the largest, deepest-diving and farthest-ranging of all the sea turtles, and are known to have existed on Earth since the time of the dinosaurs, 110 million years ago. Yet they are on the brink of worldwide extinction.

Mai Khao Beach in Phuket and Thai Muang Beach in Phang Nga were once their favoured spots in Thailand to lay their eggs, but the turtles have rarely been seen here for the last 15 years, with the last recorded nesting in Mai Khao in 2013.

Leatherback turtles prefer beaches with a slope, to limit the distance from the sea to dry sand; without bright lights; and free of debris. If no suitable spot is found, the female may return to sea without laying her eggs. It will be another 3 – 4 years before she is ready to try again.

Coastal development and marine pollution are therefore the key factors in their recent disappearance from Andaman shores.

But on 17 December 2018, a 1.25m female leatherback was spotted on Khuk Khak Beach in Phang Nga province, nesting in front of Khao Lak Orchid Beach Resort during daylight hours.

Perhaps disturbed by the people observing, the young mother laid her 118 eggs slightly below the high water mark. After being alerted, the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (8th Division) recovered 93 viable embryos to be moved further up the beach for safety. The 89 surviving eggs are now under 24 hour surveillance and monitoring.

You can see a live web feed from the 6 CCTV cameras monitoring the nesting site here: http://loveseaturtle.dmcr.go.th

Nine days later, another leatherback nest was found by villagers just before dawn in Ban Tha Sai, Thai Muang district, some 39km from the original spot in Khuk Khak. It is not known whether the eggs are from the same mother, although the size of the imprint suggests the second nest was made by a larger female – and this time it was above the high water mark. These eggs are also under surveillance.

Pakawat “Parn” Winyukul, the leader of Trash Hero Khao Lak, visited the team from the DMCR tasked with the monitoring the Khuk Khak site a few days after the find. He reported that there was great excitement and that every care was being taken to ensure that the eggs would be safely incubated. Surface temperature of the sand was being checked every two hours, and the relative humidity and temperature of the nest, 90cm under the ground was also being monitored.

The eggs should take between 60 – 72 days to hatch. Temperature plays a large part in the success – and also determines the sex – of the brood.

Parn visiting the DMCR team at the Khuk Khak surveillance site

The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources extended thanks to all Trash Hero volunteers for helping to keep this stretch of coastline clean over the past two years, saying this had directly contributed to the turtles’ return.

“Of course, Khuk Khak beach [the site of the first nest] is kept pretty clean by the two hotels located there,” explained Parn, “and other groups such as the Department of National Parks also do cleanups on this coast, so we can’t take the credit. It’s really a whole community effort that has led to these wonderful events.

“But DMCR did stress that the [10+ tons of] garbage we have removed in this area over the past two years has had an effect on the local marine ecosystem, as that stuff would blow or wash back into the sea without regular removal.

Trash Hero Khao Lak volunteers cleaning Thai Muang beach with the Dept. of National Parks

“It was a really proud moment for me to know that our small efforts can have such an amazing effect – really the best New Year gift ever!” continued a visibly emotional Parn. “The leatherback mother turtles and their babies will be an inspiration for everyone at Trash Hero Khao Lak as we continue our work in 2019.”

Prof. Dr. Thon Thamrongnawasawat, Thailand’s leading marine biologist and veteran environmental campaigner, pictured below (in the white polo shirt) with Parn, visited the surveillance centre at its launch. He also expressed his gratitude to local community groups who have been cleaning the beaches, and appealed for more efforts to reduce single use plastic bags in particular, which the turtles mistake for jellyfish – their main source of food.

He said the sites in Phang Nga were leading the world in terms of the protection provided for the leatherback nests and that the evidence of healthy females gives him hope of a recovery in the Andaman population. There is certainly a renewed sense of optimism after the dire warnings issued last year by the Director-General of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation about the continued absence of the giant turtles.

The nesting season for leatherbacks is usually from November to February, with females returning to the area where they were born and laying up to 10 times, with intervals of 10 – 12 days. So all concerned are praying there will be more eggs to come.

According to the Leatherback Trust, only 25 % of hatchlings will make it through their first few days in the ocean, with around six percent surviving their first year. The Royal Thai Navy’s Sea Turtle Nursery at Thap Lamu, located near the nesting sites, will therefore look after the baby turtles until they are strong enough to be released back into the wild.

UPDATE: 11 February 2019

The first set of baby turtles have hatched:

Bring your own container campaign takes off in Trang

by Seema on 17/09/2018 No comments

Our amazing Trash Hero chapters are always going the extra mile to involve their communities. In Trang Province in Thailand, the team have recently launched a campaign to “bring your own” reusable bottle, bag, cutlery or container when out shopping or ordering takeaway food.

Their aim is to persuade local businesses – and not just the usual suspects like hip coffee shops, but market stalls and travelling street vendors, too – to offer a discount to any customer who brings a reusable container to take home their products, avoiding the use of a disposable, single-use plastic equivalent.

So far more than 30 vendors have signed up to the scheme, offering discounts of anything from 5 baht (15¢) to 10% off your purchase.

Jean-Luc, one of the Trash Hero Trang leaders (pictured top), reported a positive response to their efforts, saying “the issue [of plastic pollution] is now very big in Thailand. As well as being concerned personally, shop owners understand this initiative is another way to attract customers and also save costs”.

If you’re visiting Trang, check out the list of participating businesses on the Facebook link here : https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2188193051253079&type=1&l=e40f0258ee – and don’t forget to bring your containers!

Trash Hero meets with Thai Prime Minister

by Seema on 30/08/2018 No comments

It’s been an extraordinary month for Trash Hero in Thailand.

We were delighted to see the Prime Minister of Thailand, Prayut Chan-ocha, highlight the growing problem of plastic waste within the kingdom on his weekly address to the nation. His second report on the topic, broadcast across all channels on 10 August 2018, outlined the various measures being implemented to tackle the crisis, as well as encouraging all stakeholders to do their part to help.

You can see the full report below:

During this segment (at 08:00), Mr Chan-ocha drew attention to the activities of Trash Hero, whose volunteers have worked tirelessly to bring issues of waste – and the solutions – to the forefront of public awareness over the past four years.

The Prime Minster held Trash Hero up as an example for the country’s youth and for the power of people working together. After presenting our latest waste collection figures to the country, he also asked a pertinent question, saying “these results were achieved by only 100,000 people. If all 60 million citizens would join in, how big would the impact be?”

Trash Hero is honoured by this recognition and support for our work and approach.

Shortly after the broadcast, we had the opportunity to meet both the Prime Minister and the Deputy Education Minister of Thailand in person at events in Chumphon Province.

On 20 August 2018, Clin. Prof. Udom Kachintorn, the Deputy Minister of Education, visited Ban Hin Kob to see the work of six local schools taking part in the Trash Hero Kids program – the highlight of which was a dramatisation of our story book by Year 4 and 5 students from Ban Don Takian School. The play was well received by the Minister and we presented him with a Trash Hero gift bag containing our shirt, bottle and kids’ books.

The following day, representatives of Trash Hero Chumphon, Trash Hero Kids and Trash Hero World were invited, along with other community groups, to King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (Chumphon campus), to meet the Prime Minister. He spoke warmly of Trash Hero, and posed for photos with many of our young volunteers.

We were able to convey information about our activities, not only to the PM’s aides, but to other government ministers and provincial governors who were also present. In a direct conversation we thanked Mr Chan-ocha for his support and assured him that we are ready to work together with all parties to increase engagement and cooperation on tackling plastic pollution at the source.

Trash Hero Thailand currently has 27 active chapters and is registering as a legal entity.

Picture credits: ไทยคู่ฟ้า, PMDU and A. Nestcharat Photography

Paddling the Thames – Source to Sea

by Leslie Finlay on 18/06/2018 1 comment

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.

Day 8. 15km. 4 hours paddling + 2 wonderful school assemblies Ep Collier Primary School At Caversham& Thameside Primary School. Huge thanks to all the teachers & pupils for their amazing welcome & enthusiasm to our cause. Finally, a big shout out to @riverandrowingmuseum for allowing us to store our bottle boards. Their fantastic Wind in the Willows exhibit made our day & was the best end to Little Nat's journey with us….until next time!

Gepostet von The Whale Company am Samstag, 16. Juni 2018

About The Whale Company

The Whale Company is a charity founded by Carolyn Newton and Carlos de Sousa to promote a more sustainable lifestyle, encourage more people to connect with nature and to change attitudes surrounding plastic use. They believe that education is the strongest tool to do this, because we protect what we love.

Running Bottle Board workshops is one aspect of this – they want people to realise that enjoying watersports doesn’t have to be expensive, and to inspire creative thinking about how we deal with our plastic waste. For more information about their activities, visit https://thewhalecompany.co.uk/.

Trash Hero Saba Teaching the Heroes of Tomorrow Through Illustration

by Leslie Finlay on 17/04/2018 No comments

Experts have agreed for years that kids learn material differently than adults, and they also insist that how a child is educated bears great impact on his or her understanding of the world, shaping behaviours that will stay with a person throughout his or her life.

Trash Hero Saba has been working to fully engage its hero children from the classroom to the beaches.

In Saba, Indonesia, the local Trash Heroes have launched an innovative new program aimed at educating the local kids about how to responsibly manage trash in their communities, especially plastic waste, driving an overall message of zero-waste living.

Wayan Aksara’s team has developed a series of comic-style cartoons they release online, free for download and use. Wayan says that the comics are designed as supplementary materials for parents and elementary school teachers as a way to instill lifelong sustainable behaviours among the next generation of heroes in a more fun and interesting way.

Wayan Aksara says that new original comics created by his team will be posted on the group’s Facebook page, available for free to parents and educators alike.

Check out the Trash Hero Saba Facebook page and its partner BALIAN to follow the comic creations from the team, and let us know what creative, innovative ways your local community engages its heroes!

Koh Lanta Gets Creative with Upcycling

by Leslie Finlay on 02/04/2018 1 comment

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?