Impact | Trash Hero World

Carbon footprint of reusable Trash Hero Bottles found to be 95% less than single-use plastic bottles

by Seema on 07/12/2020 1 comment

We all know that switching to reusables instead of single-use for everyday items like cutlery, food packaging and water bottles avoids a lot of plastic. Reducing waste and pollution is usually the main motivation for people who choose to reuse.

In addition to this, a recent study has also quantified the climate positive impact of the Trash Hero reusable bottle, by avoiding the greenhouse gas emissions associated with single-use plastic, as well as the money saved in the long term.

In 2019, René Mettler, a masters student at ETH Zürich, carried out research into the cost-efficiency of reusables vs. single-use systems of delivery. In one of the case studies, he compared the carbon footprint of consuming single-use plastic bottles of drinking water with refilling a Trash Hero stainless steel bottle with the equivalent amount of water at a hotel in Thailand. It was shown that the reusable system not only avoided plastic waste, but also reduced costs and greenhouse gas emissions. [René Mettler (2019). How to tackle the plastic crisis – a project-based cost efficiency assessment.]

How this was worked out
The study looked at the full life cycle of the two types of packaging systems only, not the water used to fill them. “Full life cycle” means: extraction of materials, production, use, disposal and any recovery of materials.

300 “usage cycles” were measured for each option, i.e. 300 single-use plastic bottles vs. 300 refills of the Trash Hero bottle.

The calculations were made using the following key assumptions:

Plastic bottles come in a standard weight and size (600ml, made up of 17.4g mixed plastics).
A fixed amount of water, heated to 60°C, is used for cleaning the reusable bottles and the 20 litre reusable drinking water tanks used to fill them. Note: the study was conducted in Thailand where it is not possible to drink water from the tap.
Emissions from transport are neglected as they are expected to occur within both systems on a comparable level and to be relatively small overall.
All plastic bottles get recycled at the end of their life.

This last is a very generous assumption, given that global recycling rates for PET bottles are around 25% and far less in many countries. It means that the figures used are very conservative.

A more likely scenario for ‘end of life’ is that the bottles end up either in landfill, burned openly or in an incinerator to “recover energy”, or discarded on land or in water (the bottles pictured, left, were collected at a single Trash Hero beach cleanup in Koh Lanta, Thailand).

However, it was decided not to include these options in the calculation. The range of factors that determine any waste management scenario is very wide and much depends on the local context. Singling out any one could lead to the relevancy of the data being questioned. Instead, plastic bottles are given the fairest possible chance, with some material always being recovered.

The researcher has however confirmed that taking into consideration the more likely end-of-life alternatives would always lead to an increase in the calculated carbon footprint of plastic bottles. This is in addition to the negative health impacts caused by disposal and incineration, both of which release toxic chemicals (in the form of ash, fumes or microplastics) into the atmosphere and food chain.

Crunching the numbers
Working with the above assumptions, and rounding to the nearest gram, the study found that a single use plastic water bottle creates approximately 56g of CO₂ emissions during its short life.

Meanwhile, the Trash Hero bottle and a reusable container used to dispense drinking water together release about 909g of CO₂. But of course these bottles can be – and are – reused. Refilling a Trash Hero bottle generates only 2g of CO₂ emissions – around 28 times less than drinking from single-use plastic.

Using these numbers, we can say that after only 17 refills, the Trash Hero bottle starts to have a positive effect:

➤ 1 Trash Hero bottle + 17 refills creates: (909g) + (17 x 2g) = 943g CO₂ emissions in total
➤ 17 single-use plastic bottles create: 56g x 17 = 952g CO₂ emissions in total

So when you switch to a Trash Hero bottle and refill it 17 times, the greenhouse gas footprint is already less than that of the 17 single-use plastic bottles of drinking water you would have used instead. Any further refills result in a “saving” of CO₂ as more plastic bottles are avoided.

This net saving is equal to 56g – 2g = 54g of CO₂ every time you choose to refill rather than purchase a plastic bottle of water.

Over one year, if you refill once per day and avoid buying any plastic bottles of water, you will have reduced your CO₂ footprint by just over 19kg!

Of course, this is actually a very small percentage of your overall annual carbon footprint – try not to drive to the refill point or order a steak with your water! – but as a direct comparison between packaging systems, the Trash Hero reusable option reduces your impact by around 95% vs. single-use plastic.

The conclusion
This is the first climate impact study done on the Trash Hero bottle and our refill programme. In the particular case considered, at a hotel in Thailand supplying drinking water to its guests, the reusable delivery system had a significantly lower rate of carbon dioxide emissions (95% less) than single-use plastic bottles, with sustained use (more than 17 refills).

In terms of the overall carbon footprint of an individual, the impact of switching to reusable bottles from single-use is likely to be very low, especially factoring in other activities such as transport or diet. However in the context of packaging and delivery systems, the climate positive impact of using the Trash Hero bottle is clear. At scale, small changes such as this can become important. A report in Science Daily in 2019 notes that “emissions from plastics will reach 17% of the global carbon budget by 2050.”

We also know that switching to the Trash Hero bottle reduces plastic waste and saves you money by avoiding bottled water. So we can say for our bottle, these are the new 3 Rs:

REDUCE plastic waste
REDUCE climate impact
REDUCE costs

To work out exactly how much you could reduce, or already have, we have created two bottle impact calculators, linked to this study. The first is for individuals and the second is for hotels to work out the savings made by replacing plastic water bottles in their rooms with the reusable Trash Hero bottles. Give them a try: you may be surprised at the results!

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René Mettler’s Master Thesis was jointly supervised by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zürich) and the sustainability solutions provider, South Pole. It analysed the cost efficiency of waste management and reusable packaging projects. One of these projects was the Trash Hero bottle programme, as implemented in a hotel in southern Thailand. The results showed that the bottle programme does not only lead to environmental benefits such as avoided plastic waste and CO2 emissions, it also saves costs. Our thanks to volunteer Caroline Schweisgut-Heimgartner for her help with interpreting the data.

The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo and Nestlé named top plastic polluters for the third year in a row

by Seema on 02/12/2020 No comments

The results of Break Free From Plastic’s annual Brand Audit Report have been released today, confirming that, for the third year in row, the same few companies are responsible for the vast quantities of single-use plastic polluting our planet.

In total, during August and September, 14,734 volunteers in 55 countries conducted 575 brand audits, collecting 346,494 pieces of plastic waste and recording the type and the company that produced it. 15% (90) of these audits were carried out by our own Trash Hero volunteers at their weekly cleanup – a fantastic contribution to the research that we are very proud of. And, for the first time, more than 300 waste pickers were engaged across the Global South to audit the waste they sort on a daily basis.

Despite the challenges of organising during a global pandemic, the volunteers safely coordinated more brand audit events in more countries this year than in the previous two years.

63% of the plastic collected in the 2020 study was marked with a clear consumer brand. In total, more than 5,000 brands were catalogued. Analysis from Break Free From Plastic revealed the following as the 2020 Top 10 Global Polluters:

The Coca-Cola Company;
PepsiCo;
Nestlé;
Unilever;
Mondelez International;
Mars, Inc.;
Procter & Gamble;
Philip Morris International;
Colgate-Palmolive; and
Perfetti Van Melle.

From the executive summary of the report, which Trash Hero translated into Indonesian, Malay and Thai to help disseminate the information to a wider audience:

“The title of Top Global Polluters describes the parent companies whose brands were recorded polluting the most places around the world with the greatest amount of plastic waste. The 2020 Top Global Polluters remain remarkably consistent with previous brand audit reports, demonstrating that the same corporations are continuing to pollute the most places with the most single-use plastic. Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and PepsiCo have remained the Top Three Global Polluters every year since [BFFP’s] first global brand audit in 2018.

For the third consecutive year, Coca-Cola emerged as the #1 Top Global Polluter. A total of 13,834 branded Coca-Cola plastics were recorded in 51 countries, reflecting more plastic than the next two top global polluters combined. These results amount to a significant increase, as 2,102 more branded Coca-Cola plastic items were recorded in 14 more countries in 2020 than in last year’s global brand audit.

Seven of the top polluters — The Coca-Cola Company; PepsiCo; Nestlé; Unilever; Mondelez International; Mars, Inc.; and Colgate-Palmolive — have joined The New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, but this is not enough. According to a recent Ellen MacArthur report, the signatories to the New Plastic Economy Global Commitment have only reduced their use of virgin plastic by only 0.1% from 2018 to 2019.

The Break Free From Plastic movement is calling on companies to urgently reduce the amount of single-use plastic they use. The top polluters must reveal how much single-use plastic they use, then set clear, measurable targets for reducing the quantity of single-use plastic items they produce. Finally, they must reinvent their product delivery systems to move beyond single-use plastic altogether.”

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.

Trash Hero takes part in research project to discover “world’s top polluters”

by Seema on 03/10/2020 No comments

As Trash Heroes, we know a community cleanup is one of the most effective ways to help people understand the impact of plastic pollution and create the positive energy needed for change. But we also know cleanups on their own are not a long term solution to the problem of plastic waste. For that, we need to go to the source.

That’s why Trash Hero has joined forces with Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) again this year for a mass data collection project focusing on “brand audits”.

Brand Audits September 2020 in Baubau, Indonesia and Basel, Switzerland.

A “brand audit” is a detailed log of the plastic found during a regular cleanup. It records the date; location; type of material and the number of layers in each piece; and then the name of the producer, if it’s still visible. The data is collected in a systematic way and – for this project – from a wide range of locations on a global scale, involving many different NGOs and volunteers.

BFFP, as the coordinator of the project, will then compile and interpret the collected data for their annual Brand Audit Report (results of the 2019 report here). The results serve as evidence of the scale and provenance of consumer-goods-related pollution. They enable BFFP to push the biggest manufacturers of this plastic waste to change the way they make and deliver their products.

This year’s report is due out in early December. Trash Hero World has committed to make the findings available in Indonesian, Thai and Malaysian to amplify the media coverage in Southeast Asia.

Brand Audits September 2020 in Nagekeo, Indonesia and Tuaran, Malaysia

To broaden the dataset, Trash Hero World and BFFP provided brand audit training for Trash Hero volunteers in several different countries in August and September. It was a new experience for most of them: gathering and recording the information is a fairly labour-intensive process, but one that proved to be both eye-opening and fun. In the lead up to the official data collection period, Trash Hero Canggu in Indonesia collected 140 unrecyclable tubes of toothpaste from a single brand (Pepsodent, by Unilever) in just one hour!

The data collection period lasted six weeks, coming to an end on 30 September 2020. Although the results are still coming in, our estimates show that around 80 brand audits were carried out by Trash Hero volunteers in around 60 locations in the northern, southern, eastern and western hemispheres.

This is more than four times the number of brand audits we submitted as an organisation last year and should in the end make up around one-sixth of the total brand audits contributed to the project globally this year (final numbers TBC). We are very proud of our citizen scientists, many of whom were working under challenging conditions due to COVID-19. We will publish the outcomes of the whole project in a future post.

Brand Audits September 2020 in Koh Samed, Thailand and Saba, Bali

The Trash Hero chapters that carried out a brand audit for this project include:

INDONESIA
Trash Hero Ambon, Trash Hero Amed, Trash Hero Belu, Trash Hero Baubau, Trash Hero Blahbatuh, Trash Hero Bandung, Trash Hero Bunaken, Trash Hero Batubulan, Trash Hero Bogor, Trash Hero Canggu, Trash Hero Candidasa, Trash Hero Depok, Trash Hero Ende, Trash Hero Jimbaran, Trash Hero Kelimutu, Trash Hero Kendari, Trash Hero Kertalangu, Trash Hero Komodo, Trash Hero Kupang, Trash Hero Lembata, Trash Hero Larantuka, Trash Hero Lovina, Trash Hero Mamuju, Trash Hero Muba, Trash Hero Nagekeo, Trash Hero Pemuteran, Trash Hero Payangan, Trash Hero Raja Ampat, Trash Hero Saba, Trash Hero Sanur, Trash Hero Tanjung

MALAYSIA
Trash Hero Banting, Trash Hero Cherating, Trash Hero Ipoh, Trash Hero Johor Bahru, Trash Hero Papar, Trash Hero Perlis, Trash Hero Langkawi, Trash Hero Sintok, Trash Hero Temerloh, Trash Hero Tuaran

NETHERLANDS
Trash Hero Amsterdam

ROMANIA
Trash Hero Vatra Dornei

SERBIA
Trash Hero Beograd

SWITZERLAND
Trash Hero Basel, Trash Hero Bern, Trash Hero Fribourg, Trash Hero Luzern, Trash Hero Solothurn, Trash Hero Winterthur

THAILAND
Trash Hero Bangkok, Trash Hero Pattaya, Trash Hero Koh Phi Phi, Trash Hero Hua Hin, Trash Hero Chumphon, Trash Hero Koh Jum, Trash Hero Koh Samed, Trash Hero Koh Samui

UK
Trash Hero UK (London and Newcastle)

Creating change in a time of crisis

by Seema on 04/05/2020 1 comment

A message from the Trash Hero co-founder, Roman Peter:

As the scale and severity of the Covid-19 pandemic became clear in early March, our immediate priority was to make sure our hundreds of volunteers and communities were safe. Our network is global and then – as now – every country was responding differently to the threat of the virus. On 13 March, we issued simple guidelines and a risk assessment tool to all chapters to help them to decide whether to carry on activities and how to proceed in a safe manner if they did.

We were also proactive in putting on hold all travel arrangements and accommodation bookings for our Southeast Asian family meetings that were due to be held in April – our biggest and costliest events of the year. These precautions meant that when we eventually made the decision to cancel, we did not lose a single dollar of your donated funds.

During the lockdown period, we have not been able to carry on “business as usual.” All programmes have been temporarily suspended, in line with government restrictions. Instead, we have focused on supporting our volunteers with frequent communication and interaction: keeping our network engaged will be key to getting up and running again quickly once it is safe to do so.

As an already lean organisation we have been able to contain the immediate impact on our finances. We took further steps to minimise our costs; reprioritise and redistribute work; and harness additional volunteer power through our existing networks. In this way, we have been able to retain all of our current staff. Below we go into some of these measures in more detail.

Together with the reserves we started to build in 2018, and the unfaltering commitments of foundations and individuals for the current year, we are confident that we will weather this storm.
However the long term financial future remains uncertain. More than ever we rely on your support to continue with our work.

ACTIVITIES

All community-based activities (Action & Awareness, Trash Hero Kids’ programme) stopped from late March; the bottle programme also effectively shut down as refill point businesses closed.
We have been creating new content to encourage waste reduction activities that can be done solo or at home, for example this Trash Hero Kids video:

We have been keeping people up to date with the latest information about corona and reusables, and issues around medical waste
We are currently organising online workshops / leaders’ academy / family meetings and taking this opportunity to include chapters in countries who previously had not been able to join
As restrictions ease in different countries, a few cleanups are restarting, in compliance with local safety regulations
Many volunteers have been hit hard personally by the crisis, especially those in Southeast Asia, where tourist income has disappeared overnight and there is little to no government support. It is possible we lose some chapters as a result. We are however doing everything possible (aside from providing financial aid) to ensure morale is kept up and to remind everyone they will always be part of the “Trash Hero Family.”

From left / top: Trash Hero Tachov motivated people to do solo cleanups with #oneplaceonehero; Trash Hero Adelaide organised “group” cleanups with everyone going out separately; Trash Hero Tumapel did home schooling with the Trash Hero Kids book

FINANCES

Careful planning ensured no existing funds were lost due to the pandemic
Individual / spontaneous donations have almost completely dried up since March
We expect earned income from events, partnerships etc. to be significantly impacted
The majority of our major donors are honouring their commitments for 2020, for which we are very grateful
We are equally grateful for any flexibility from grant-makers on obligations and timelines
We currently have funds to cover 7 months of operation and we have a further 4 months’ funds held in our reserves.
Salaries across the network (4 full time positions) are covered until November this year
There is no doubt we will be ready to start activities as soon as we are able. But reserves will be depleted so funds are needed to make up the loss
Our existing budget and targets for this year will be revised down by an estimated 50%. We cannot yet provide a final calculation as the situation is still changing. However as growth and spending decrease concurrently, we expect our impact per dollar to remain roughly the same.

MANAGEMENT

We provided guidance to all volunteers within 48 hours of the pandemic being declared in March
Our global teams were already remote working, so no time or resources were lost in adapting to “work from home”
With reduced daily business, we have been able to carry out much needed consolidation of programmes and infrastructure
This has created a lot of new work focused on long term capacity building. Our staff have been flexible and adapted quickly to the new routines
Our core volunteer network has been affected in different ways: some people have needed a break to focus on their personal situation, while others have been able to offer more time as they are staying at home. Overall, we have continued to cover significant translation and administrative tasks with pro bono contributions.

From left / top: Reduce food waste with Trash Hero World; stay home with Trash Hero Indonesia; learn how to upcycle with Trash Hero Kuwait

COMMUNICATION

Since the start of the crisis, we have stayed in constant communication with our volunteer network
We continue to post on social media and have issued guidelines for chapters to do the same
We monitor our social media network (200+ accounts) for misinformation or inappropriate posting about the virus, as well as for positive and creative posts to share
We have built a Southeast Asia operations team to facilitate two way communication
We have made good progress on our volunteer intranet

As the economic climate becomes more challenging over the coming months, Trash Hero will be needed more than ever to keep the focus on plastic reduction at the grassroots. We have already seen the plastic industry start to capitalise on people’s fears over hygiene, by pushing for more single use products and packaging, or trying to overturn plastic bans in various locations around the world.

It is important that the impact of our work thus far is not lost in this hiatus. Our communities are depending on us – and you – to continue our activities. And, despite the uncertainty, there are great opportunities for change offered by this crisis. As life begins again, we can help shape the “new normal” to reflect our shared vision of a world without waste. The Trash Hero hope and spirit is still strong and, with your ongoing support, we can continue to make a difference.

Trash Hero Czech Republic invited to the House of Representatives!

by Monika on 16/01/2020 No comments

A deposit system for PET bottles and aluminium cans: yes or no? That is the hot topic in the Czech Republic right now. Despite the fact that 75% of Czech citizens are in favour of a deposit system, the Czech Ministry of Environment is not a big fan.

Nonetheless, on 9 January 2020 in Prague, a round table discussion on this subject took place in the Houses of Parliament and Trash Hero Czech Republic were invited to contribute.

The debate was initiated two years ago by the sparkling water company, Mattoni (owned by Pepsico), who called for a study into the need for a deposit system. Research was carried out by INCIEN (Institute for Circular Economy), VŠCHT (University of Chemistry and Technologies) and Eunomia (Consultant Agency of European Committee). Their findings showed that a deposit system would be more cost-effective and have a better impact on the environment than the existing waste management system.

However, it is not only scientists, ecologists, environmental NGOs and mayors of smaller towns who would like to have a deposit system in place. Interestingly, the biggest push – as evidenced by the Mattoni study – comes from soda and beer producers themselves. Even the representative of Coca-Cola in Czech Republic came out in favour of a deposit system at the meeting.

The main opponents of a deposit system are waste management companies. They claim that there is no need for it; we can instead improve the capabilities of our existing waste management to meet EU targets of 90% plastic separation by 2035.

While the Czech Ministry of Environment is not completely opposed to a deposit system, it does not see it as a priority in the next few years. They stated they would rather make improvements to the current infrastructure, as suggested by the waste management companies, and put higher taxes on non-recyclable materials to motivate producers to use recyclable ones.

There were only two points that everybody seemingly agreed on:

1) More data and analysis is needed to understand the possible impact of either introducing the deposit system or improving existing waste separation

2) Any deposit system introduced should put a deposit not only on PET bottles and cans, but also on other packaging, e.g. TetraPak, coffee cups, batteries, with the possibility of extending to consumer electronics such as mobile phones.

The Trash Hero representative, Jan Bareš, spoke towards the end of the discussion. His main point was that regardless of the different motivations and intentions of the people at the table, we all share the same planet and should work together to keep the nature clean. Since Trash Hero Czech Republic volunteers pick up many PET bottles and cans, there is clearly space for improvement. He also stated that the ultimate goal should not be a higher rate of recycling but preventing the trash in the first place. To reach this goal, we should focus on redesigning the products to be reusable and also by educating people that packaging materials have value. The deposit system could be great tool for that.

So what conclusion did we reach? Although there was no definitive outcome of the meeting, we are encouraged that the debate is taking place and that there is an open discussion between all stakeholders. We are also encouraged by the response Trash Hero received from those present: ours was the only speech during the two hour session that got applause!

The Czech national and local government, beverage companies and waste managment companies now know that Trash Heroes are out there, they are watching and they could be a useful partner, whether providing advice, data or support. As they say, “watch this space…”

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.

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.

From Beach Cleans to Bracelets: Thai Trash Hero’s Jewelry at Laos Fashion Week

by Leslie Finlay on 11/10/2019 No comments

Fah Sattayaphan has been a jewelry designer for 13 years in Koh Samed, Thailand. The tiny paradise among the eastern seaboard islands of Thailand has long inspired her beachy collections designed of beads, string, and macramé. But in recent years Koh Samed has experienced the same emergent problem found in coastal communities around the globe: marine pollution.

Since joining her local Trash Hero community, Fah became motivated by the idea of upcycling – baskets, rope, fishing gear and more collected from the island’s weekly beach cleans can be restored and reused. This concept soon made its way into her jewelry designs.

In collaboration with Hilke Scholz, a German fashion designer committed to sustainable, low-waste fashion, Fah designed a collection that was displayed at Laos Fashion Week in September. The jewelry and accessories presented were made entirely from objects collected from the sea and coastline during beach cleans in Koh Samed, giving items discarded as waste new value and purpose.

“Trash will not be trash if we value it,” Fah said of her collection. “It can be beautiful and usable.”

The pieces Fah presented included bracelets, belts, and earrings. Her intricate macramé technique is contrasted by long hanging unfinished ends that show the origin of the material. Together, the fashion and jewelry collection served as a reminder to appreciate the value of material and craft and to restore the inviolability of nature.

Since working on this collaborative collection, Fah said she has completely stopped buying any new material for her jewelry design – she intends to continue using only trash found during cleanups. This way, she hopes to promote sustainability through her business and urge people to reconsider their approach to their own waste.

Fah’s designs will be sold at Ministry Of Silk in Vientiane, and profits will be donated to an organisation that supports the flood victims of southern Laos, the COPE center that supports bomb victims and prevents future accidents, and the Lao Young Designer Award that gives scholarships to young Lao design talents.

Check out more of Fah’s work on Koh Samed here.

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.