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It’s snowing plastic in the Alps

by Martyna Morawska on 16/02/2022 No comments

In a new study, Empa researcher Dominik Brunner, together with colleagues from the Utrecht University and the Austrian Central Institute for Meteorology and Geophysics, investigated the amount of plastic present in precipitation over the period of a month.

According to the study, nanoplastics can spread aerially over a 2,000-kilometre radius resulting in around 43 trillion tiny plastic particles ending up in Switzerland every year. This could equate to 3,000 tons of nanoplastics annually, ranging from the remote Alps to the urban lowlands. “These estimates are very high relative to other studies, and more research is needed to validate them”, according to Empa. Nonetheless, the results of Brunner’s work are the most accurate assessment of nanoplastic air pollution ever made.

To count the plastic particles, Brunner and his colleagues developed a method that determines the level of contamination in collected samples. The scientists examined a small area at an altitude of 3,106 metres at the top of the Hoher Sonnenblick mountain in the Austrian Hohe Tauern National Park. Every day and in all weather conditions, they removed part of the top layer of snow at 8am and carefully stored it to check for plastic residue.

The origin of the tiny particles was traced using European wind and weather data. It was established that the largest emission of nanoplastics into the air happens in densely populated, urban areas. About 30 percent of the measured nanoplastic particles on the mountaintop came from a radius of 200 kilometres, mostly from cities, while around ten percent of the particles were blown in from more than 2,000 kilometres away, partly from the Atlantic.

It is estimated that more than 8.3 billion tons of plastic have been produced worldwide, around 60 percent of which has ended up either in a landfill or the natural environment. This plastic is eroded by weather effects and abrasion into micro (less than five millimetres in diameter) and nanoparticles (less than 100 nm in diameter). Due to their size, their movement in air can be best compared to gas. This means they are easily inhaled into our lungs, as well as ingested through contaminated food and water sources. Once in the body, their size allows them to potentially cross the cell-blood barrier and thus enter the bloodstream. The health implications of this are only beginning to be studied.

Every kilo counts! How we measured our impact in 2021

by Martyna Morawska on 06/02/2022 No comments

Did you know that in 2021 alone Trash Hero organised 2,801 cleanups? That is almost 8 cleanups on every single day of the year! We have also welcomed 49,426 volunteers on board, including 11,531 under the age of 16. We collected a whopping 284,606 kg of trash, an average of 102 kg per cleanup. With our Bottles & Bags programme, we were able to distribute 1,401 bottles and 2,185 bags, equating to saving 797,525 single-use plastic bottles* and 511,365 plastic bags*. And 2,000 new Trash Hero kids books were printed, in 2 new languages – Malay and Arabic.

Where do those numbers come from? After every cleanup event, Trash Hero chapters weigh the trash they collected and post their results with photos on social media. The data is also uploaded to a central collection point. To be fully transparent, we make this data publicly available. Anyone can access it live on our website, by clicking on the chapter name: https://trashhero.org/our-network/.

This policy of data collection means that we can also calculate our impact since the very beginning of Trash Hero. Here is what we have achieved together thus far from December 2013 to December 2021:

We have mobilised 411,837 volunteers including 103,510 kids.
Together, they completed 14,910 cleanups and 266 brand audits.
2,154,134 kg of trash have been collected, including (in the last 6 months) 9,479 single-use masks.
In total, Trash Hero has distributed 102,470 reusable bottles, thus avoiding 37.4 million single-use plastic bottles* and 1,947 tons of CO2 emissions in the process.
Meanwhile, our distribution of 27,945 reusable bags has saved 10.2 million plastic equivalents*.
Our network is now active in 171 locations in 20 countries worldwide.

Of course, numbers are only one side of the story. Let’s not forget the positive energy, momentum and hope that our actions create – these things are immeasurable. We hope we have captured some of this Trash Hero spirit in our impact video above. Click play to see the magic – and thank you to all who have contributed to these achievements over the years!

*based on an estimated average usage of 1 refill per day for a year (365 days)

Trash Hero joins the Plastic Health Coalition

by Martyna Morawska on 19/01/2022 No comments

Trash Hero World is proud to have been invited to become a new member of the Plastic Health Coalition. Together, we will work on preventing and resolving the harmful impacts of plastic pollution on the environment, as well as filling the knowledge gaps regarding the relationship between plastics and human health.

The Plastic Health Coalition was launched by the Plastic Soup Foundation, a non-profit organisation aiming to educate the public about “plastic soup” – the litter floating in the oceans and affecting marine life, the environment and our health. The coalition involves various national and international environmental and research organisations, whose scope of work focuses on the negative effects of plastics and microplastics on our health. As part of the initiative, a yearly Plastic Health Summit is organised with the focus being on exposing the devastating health impacts of plastics, and highlighting the benefits of a healthy environment.

By joining the Plastic Health Coalition, Trash Hero hopes to facilitate and support the process of spreading essential knowledge regarding plastic pollution and human health. Our expertise, experience and resources will enable us to bring this knowledge to international audiences in multiple languages. We are committed to supporting the Plastic Health Coalition in the fight for a healthier planet and, by extension, healthier people.

Trash Hero brings The Story of Plastic to new audiences

by Martyna Morawska on 13/12/2021 2 comments

Billed as the film “Big Oil doesn’t want you to see”, the Emmy-Award winning documentary The Story of Plastic presents a cohesive timeline of how we got to the current stage in the global plastic crisis, showing how the petrochemical and FMCG industries manipulated the narrative around the pollution they were creating, successfully pinning the blame on the consumer and public infrastructure.

After its success, its producers, The Story of Stuff Project, released a short animated version of the documentary that summarises its main arguments and the need for systemic change in under five minutes.

Seeing the potential of this short to address misconceptions about the solutions to the plastic crisis, Trash Hero collaborated with The Story of Stuff Project to produce local language versions, with dubbed narration.

We have already released versions in Thai, Indonesian and Malaysian; several other languages will follow in 2022. This will allow the important messages of the film to be seen by new audiences in Southeast Asia and beyond. To date, the videos have reached more than 1 million people on social media! If you are connected to any of these language speakers, please do share the clip with them.

The original video files are also freely available to use offline for NGOS, schools and organisations; please contact us to get a download link.

We would like to thank the global Trash Hero Family and everyone who has been involved in the translation project. Special thanks to the volunteers and studio facilities who provided their time for free:

Malaysia: Muhammad Asyraf bin Rosmidi and Anne Vendargon (translation), Rosnani Nazri (narration)

Thailand: 130TUN (video editing)

Arabic: (clip coming soon) Arts Group Studio, Laila Al-Najjar (narration), Yousef Al-Shatti and Bader Al-Shatti (translation)

Vietnam: (clip coming soon) Hiệp Nguyễn (translation and narration), 130TUN (video editing)

To view the original English version of “The Story of Plastic animated short” with subtitles in many languages, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO3SA4YyEYU

Gala concert held for Trash Hero World

by Martyna Morawska on 22/11/2021 No comments

In the evening of November 12th, Trash Hero took part in a very special event – a gala with an acoustic concert organised in Hotel Alexander (Weggis, Switzerland).

A piano and guitar set was performed by a Swiss singer and song-writer Eliane, winner of the second season of Switzerland’s Got Talent. Eliane is an ambassador for Schnarwiler’s cosmetics lines “Trash Hero Love” and “Re-use-me” and is an avid supporter of Trash Hero’s activities.

Throughout the evening, we received over $3500 in donations, including the entire amount earned by the guitarist for the night who kindly donated his salary, which we are extremely grateful for!

The gala was organised by Schnarwiler, a Swiss based manufacturer and distributor of beauty and health products, who have launched a zero-waste line of toiletry products in collaboration with Trash Hero. During the event, Roman Peter had the opportunity to deliver a presentation to an audience of around 100 people, explaining the mission and vision of Trash Hero, as well as inviting attendees to join the movement.

We would like to especially thank Eliane for her role in this fundraising event, and for her continued commitment to raising awareness about our mission.

Flexing our thinking muscles in Brussels!

by Seema on 13/10/2021 No comments

Teaching and advocating for zero waste is rarely a simple case of passing on knowledge, like with a mathematical formula. For the knowledge to be accepted, it usually requires an accompanying shift in people’s values and behaviour. Changing someone’s whole world view is never going to be easy. However, after a week spent in Belgium this September, the task seems a little more achievable!

As Programme Director for the global Trash Hero network, I was privileged to take part in the Erasmus+ pilot project, “Building a European Zero Waste Academy” (BEZWA), organised by Let’s Do It Foundation, Zero Waste Europe and Ekologi brez meja, with the support of Tallinn University and the Estonian University of Life Sciences. The BEZWA project’s twin goals are to create:

1) a strong curriculum to teach zero waste ambassadors, who can then advocate for zero waste cities and communities; and
2) a network of skilled trainers who can train these ambassadors – and others – effectively.

The ambassadors’ curriculum was tested live at a training in Slovenia in early September for those just starting on their zero waste journey; I joined the second stage “training of trainers”, alongside NGO colleagues from France, Germany, Slovenia, Ukraine, Cyprus and Estonia, held at the end of the same month in Brussels.

There was a range of experience present, but most of us had developed our training skills on the job, without formal qualifications and simply following common practice. The intensive 5-day course put us all through our paces and turned our preconceived notions of teaching upside down.

There was no sitting through dull Powerpoints with “tips and tricks”. Instead we discovered the inner workings of the brain. We explored new training methods based on educational psychology – that were simultaneously being used on us! These methods empower students to take ownership of their learning, rather than being passive recipients of facts.

Our own knowledge of zero waste was challenged on many levels and we engaged in a variety of activities from improv sessions to designing and teaching mini-workshops. There was also space for quiet reflection. All of this stretched and exercised our thinking muscles in unexpected ways.

In between, we found time to visit a community compost project, support the city’s zero waste restaurants and even take part in a Break Free From Plastic protest against EU waste exports outside the European Commission and Council.

It was an endlessly thought-provoking and stimulating few days, completed by the warm, supportive energy of being with like-minded people and sharing our different experiences.

The benefits to Trash Hero will be felt immediately. So much of our work is about education and these new perspectives will help to build capacity within our network and to shape and refine our programmes. The knowledge will be shared with our country coordinators as we move forward with planning our Zero Waste Communities training. And it can even be incorporated into our family meetings for volunteers once they start up again next year.

We are grateful to have had the opportunity to attend the training and to all the teaching and coordination team who made it happen. The BEZWA project will continue with follow-up sessions for all participants and assessment of outcomes until September 2022.

Trash Hero Chapter Handbook now available in Vietnamese

by Martyna Morawska on 10/10/2021 No comments

Trash Hero World is happy to announce that our Chapter Handbook has recently been translated into the Vietnamese language! In addition to Vietnamese, our handbook is also available in English, Thai, Indonesian and Burmese. This comprehensive document provides our future chapter leaders with recommendations on how to form a team, find sponsors and carry out the activities in accordance with our values.

Having our handbook translated to multiple languages supports our new and existing volunteers by providing guidance on our programmes. This in turn, allows more people to have the chance to take on prominent roles within Trash Hero World, and supports our network in building a sustainable, plastic-free future.

We are proud to witness the expansion of our organisation and the increasing engagement of our volunteers in Vietnam. None of this would have been possible without the help of our amazing volunteers with Trash Hero Song Cau, Trash Hero Hoi An and Trash Hero Ho Chi Minh, who completed the translation work.

You can find the Vietnamese version of the handbook here.

Trash Hero has concluded the 2021 brand audit

by Martyna Morawska on 06/10/2021 No comments

The data collection for the 2021 brand audit has been successfully completed! This year, 141 brand audits were carried out across 58 chapters in 8 countries, including Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Despite working under the challenging circumstances of COVID-19, our organisation has submitted roughly 50% more brand audit reports compared to last year.

Brand audits have been organised by Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) since 2018 to identify and hold to account the world’s top polluters through the categorisation of branded plastic packaging collected during cleanups. The results can be used as evidence of the scale of consumer-goods-related pollution, and push the biggest manufacturers to take responsibility for the plastic waste they produce. As a part of this movement, Trash Hero shares the common mission to bring about systemic change and promote real solutions to eliminate the need for single-use packaging and shift towards a circular economy.

We would like to thank all Trash Hero chapters and volunteers who participated in this year’s brand audit. The report is anticipated to be published by the end of October*. Trash Hero will contribute translations of the executive summary into Thai and Malaysian, in order to increase the media coverage worldwide.

*Update: link to the 2021 Brand Audit Report

Trash Hero kids’ book now in Malay!

by Seema on 09/08/2021 No comments

The Trash Hero kids’ story and activity book has been translated into a sixth language – Malaysian!

With the help of Trash Hero Malaysia volunteers, 1000 children on both Borneo and the mainland will soon get the chance to be heroes through our hands-on learning programme.

17,830 copies of the book have been printed since its launch in 2018. It is currently available in English, Thai, Indonesian, Malay, Burmese, Czech and German.

We are grateful to our local sponsors in Langkawi:

– Pelangi Beach Resort & Spa
– The Westin Langkawi Resort & Spa
– Umgawa Legendary Adventures
– Langkawi Christmas Bazaar

who covered the cost of the Malaysian print run.

You can find more resources for kids in the dedicated section on our website.

The triple threat of single-use masks

by Seema on 04/08/2021 No comments

One of the main – and most effective – measures to control the spread of COVID-19 is the use of face masks. Placed over the nose and mouth, their function is to contain respiratory droplets which transmit the virus and stop them spreading to other people. There are various grades of mask, but it is widely accepted that outside of a clinical situation, fabric, non-medical masks provide an acceptable level of protection – single-use, surgical masks are not necessary.

Yet globally we are using an estimated 129 billion single-use masks every month. Assuming each of these weighs 4 grams, that’s 516,000 metric tons of unrecyclable, hazardous waste generated every 30 or so days. If only 1% of this ends up as litter (a conservative estimate), that means 23 billion masks have entered our rivers, oceans and forests in the 18 months since the pandemic began. And of course, there are hundreds of thousands of tons of additional contaminated waste for municipalities to handle, assuming they have the capacity to do so.

These are frightening statistics – and ones that are borne out by our experience doing cleanups all over the world in 2020 and 2021. Trash Hero chapters pick up single-use masks and other PPE every week – and their findings have been covered in the media. This month, we put in place a system to record the number of masks we find at the network level, in order to raise awareness about what we see as the triple threat of single-use masks.

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Research has shown that single-use masks not only have devastating impacts on the environment, but also on society and on our health.

WHERE DO THEY GO?
Single-use masks are made from plastic, usually polypropylene or polyurethane, and are considered unrecyclable. But they should not be disposed of loose in the general waste, due to the risk of contamination. According to the World Health Organisation, they need to be double bagged in yet more plastic.

Cities and local communities have had to deal with the outcomes: the health risk from incorrect disposal as well as a huge burden of non-recyclable waste – if a waste management infrastructure even exists, which is not the case in much of the Global South.

Face masks used in a clinical setting are handled by special waste management facilities that deal with medical waste – usually through incineration. It is unusual for separate PPE collection facilities to exist for the general public, but if they do, it means rates of unsustainable and toxic incineration have increased proportionally.

HEALTH RISKS
A recent study has shown that tiny microplastics are shed from single-use masks both during and after use. Aside from the wearer inhaling these microplastics at close range (with unknown impacts on their health), contaminated nano-particles are being released into the surroundings. Once airborne, these particles can be carried up to 95km away from the source.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus (responsible for COVID-19) is able to survive much longer on the surface of plastic (around 3 days) than in respiratory droplets (around 3 hours). This means that single-use mask fibres are a transmission vector for the virus, extending its reach over longer times and distances. According to the report’s authors, “the transmission route through airborne microplastics is expected to influence, not only individual countries, but also larger regions and the whole world.”

ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS
Finally the impact on the natural environment from single-use masks is much the same as any other plastic. Wherever they end up, on land or in the ocean, they can entangle wildlife and cause poisoning through ingestion (that is carried up the food chain). Their slow demise into microplastics happens over centuries, all the while leaching toxic chemicals into the water or soil.

ALL OF THIS IS AVOIDABLE!.
When not in a clinical environment, or not clinically vulnerable, switch to a reusable mask: wear, wash and repeat. If made from multi-layered thick cotton, a reusable mask can be used safely for years and has minimal impact on the environment, especially if made from material you already have.