Trash Hero Praha | Trash Hero World

Putting volunteers first

by Seema on 26/06/2019 1 comment

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

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

Trash Hero Switzerland Family Meeting in Zurich, June 2019

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Czech language only]

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

The Czech Trash Hero family meets for the first time

by Monika on 10/06/2019 No comments

The very first Trash Hero Family Meeting in Czech Republic took place between 6 – 9th June 2019. There are currently 17 active chapters and 7 of the biggest ones have attended the meeting. Namely Trash Hero Praha, Trash Hero Brno, Trash Hero Ostrava, Trash Hero Plzeň, Trash Hero Karviná, Trash Hero Tachov and Trash Hero Hradec Králové.

The agenda covered a number of different topics such as the formation and history of the Trash Hero movement, operation of Trash Hero World and how Trash Hero Czech Republic fits into the world network. We discussed ethical values, what we consider as volunteering and its philosophy in detail. Vast amounts of time were dedicated to how to effectively organise clean ups – in order to cover health and safety issues, management of volunteering and event promotion. Particular chapters received training on Facebook (how to efficiently use and maintain Facebook pages) and communication with the media.

During the last day of our stay we had a cleanup in the city of Jihlava, where our meeting was held. The event was public and we had some locals joining us for the clean up.

A number of real outcomes were achieved:
-> Establishment of a new chapter – Trash Hero Jihlava
-> Creation of a methodology (curriculum) for presenting Trash Hero at all education levels (from kindergarten to university)
-> Facebook campaign “Yellow Tips” to roll out in July 2019 – a guide to reduce waste and single use plastic whilst shopping

However, the biggest value of this meeting was in strengthening the network of Trash Hero chapters across the Czech Republic and making them more involved in Trash Hero activities on a national level.

Trash Hero in the Antarctic

by Seema on 21/05/2019 1 comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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