Trash Hero New York | Trash Hero World

Bag yourself the new Tasini x Trash Hero turtle

by Seema on 05/02/2019 1 comment

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.

Meet the 9 year old New York Trash Hero

by Seema on 03/01/2019 1 comment

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.

Trash Hero Expands to 52 Chapters Globally

by Leslie Finlay on 22/02/2018 No comments

It’s true that not all heroes wear capes. In fact, many of them wear yellow – more than 63,000 of them to be exact!

Until the end of 2017, 52 Trash Hero chapters around the world rallied 63,098 volunteers who removed more than 408,137 kilograms of waste from our beaches, waterways, and communities. Reports estimate that most of this debris would inevitably find its way to the ocean, where it accumulates en masse and is much more difficult to remove from the environment. Much of this waste our heroes removed is plastic, which scientists agree never truly degrades but fragments into smaller and smaller bits, sustaining within the world’s ecosystems for thousands of years. Plastic of any size can be ingested by wildlife, killing the animal or cycling chemicals into the food chain.

That’s why our Trash Heroes didn’t stop at participating in 2,459 cleanups, but made active efforts to live a more sustainable, zero-waste lifestyle that eliminates trash from entering the ecosystem in the first place. More than 44,900 reusable water bottles were sold at over 256 participating businesses, saving an estimated 16-million single-use plastic bottles; 5,400 Trash Hero reusable bags were also sold, reducing single-use plastic bag use by at least 540,000 by some estimates.

Our heroes also spoke at three TEDx Talks around the world, relaying their own stories about the impact of waste in their communities and the importance of moving toward a waste-free lifestyle. Trash Hero is committed to active waste management and removal, but our mission encompasses the importance of education – spreading the attitude of sustainability. In fact, about 14,206 of our heroes in 2017 were kids, whose involvement is an enormous bright spot and the key to a cleaner future.

Talking trash in Yangon | Phone Kyaw Moe Myint | TEDxYangon

All in all, 2017 was an exciting year for us! Will you be joining the yellow-shirted heroes this year? Get in touch to find out how!

A breakdown of our 2017 numbers:

52 active chapters in 9 countries – Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, USA, Czech Republic, Switzerland, China, Singapore
63,098 heroes attended 2,459 cleanups, removing 208,137 kilograms of trash from the environment
14,206 of those heroes were kids
44,900 reusable bottles were sold at 256 participating businesses – this means that more than 16 million plastic bottles were not produced
5,400 Trash Hero reusable bags were sold, keeping 540,000 single-use plastic bags out of the environment
Speakers at 3 TEDx Talks spread the philosophy of sustainability and zero-waste to their communities at large

THANK YOU to all of our incredible heroes, and we hope to see you in 2018!