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2 million kg of trash collected!

by Martyna Morawska on 20/07/2021 No comments

The Trash Hero movement has recently reached a very important milestone on the journey to zero-waste: more than 2 MILLION KG of trash collected! As of 30 June 2021:

We have engaged 391,791 volunteers, including 98,341 kids.
We have done 13,598 cleanups, collecting 2,005,774 kg of trash.
We are active in 162 locations in 20 countries around the world.
Our bottle programme has distributed 102,129 bottles, avoiding 37.3 million single-use plastic bottles and 1,940 tons of CO2 emissions.
27,360 reusable bags have been distributed, saving 10 million plastic bags.

But, where are those numbers coming from? Every Trash Hero chapter posts their cleanup results on social media and uploads the data directly to a central collection point. Anyone can check the data live on our website: https://trashhero.org/our-network/.

All these achievements are down to the hundreds of thousands of people that have gotten us this far: picking up, sorting and auditing waste, educating others about plastic pollution and creating momentum for wider change.

Watch the video below to see how our volunteers are sharing the great news:

Staying on track: our tool to separate real and false solutions to the plastic crisis

by Seema on 12/07/2021 1 comment

As Trash Heroes, we come across many ideas on how to “solve” plastic pollution. Every week some new technology or product is heralded by the media as the way out of the plastic crisis. And our inboxes are filled with companies requesting to work with us or promote their latest “sustainable initiative”.

It can get confusing, especially with the marketing hype that often surrounds these innovations. Plant plastic! Chemical recycling! Clothes from plastic bottles! Plastic as fuel! Plastic offset! There are, of course, many others.

To understand which measures will really work in the long term, it’s important to look at the bigger picture and put them in the context of a zero waste model. And that’s exactly what we have been doing in the second round of our Zero Waste Communities volunteer training, which ran from May – June 2021 in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The four-part series – again held with the support and expertise of GAIA Asia-Pacific, Let’s Do It Foundation, YPBB Bandung and Zero Waste Europe – looked at the topics of waste separation, greenwashing and the dos and don’ts of recycling at the systemic level. We also started to explore waste as a complex or “wicked” problem, with participants going on to map the issues where they live. With this know-how they will better be able to assess – and eventually address – the waste situation in their local area.

As part of the course content, we created a tool to help anyone evaluate a proposed waste management solution and decide whether or not it was worth pursuing (click on the images above to see it in detail).

Participants used it to assess some popular ideas – and were surprised to discover that most failed the test. Although the conclusions may be uncomfortable, the tool allows people to understand the reasons why these are so-called false solutions. In essence, they do not reduce or prevent waste. They merely offer a delayed or alternative means of disposal, or a different material to throw away. They distract from the problem with quick fixes, rather than deeper, structural change.

In the live sessions, we also learned what would pass the test and be considered a real solution – and that these are often very simple ideas that do not get the same media coverage. It’s part of our mission at Trash Hero to make sure these real solutions are more widely known and adopted.

We’ll publish the full course in four languages on social media and here on this site over the coming weeks. In the meantime, we are sharing the PDF version of the tool here in different languages for anyone to use. We’d love to hear how you get on – ping us @trashheroworld. Please do read the notes before you attempt any assessment, and remember this is only a guide!

False Solutions Tool – English
Petunjuk Solusi Palsu – Bahasa Indonesia
เครื่องมือประเมินแผนการปลอดขยะ – ภาษาไทย

Our thanks to Dr. Enzo Favoino from Zero Waste Europe, Kadri Kalle from Let’s Do It Foundation, Miko Aliño from GAIA Asia-Pacific and Dr. Nattapong Nithi-Uthai of Trash Hero Pattani, whose input in shaping the final version of the tool was invaluable.

174 volunteers join the first family meetings of 2021

by Martyna Morawska on 07/05/2021 No comments

With the pandemic still preventing meeting in person, our first round of family meetings for 2021 were again held online. Trash Hero World organised two global Zoom calls, while chapters in Indonesia, Thailand , Malaysia and Switzerland also hosted their own.

While we acknowledge that a remote meeting cannot adequately match a face-to-face discussion, we appreciate that it does increase accessibility and inclusivity by offering the opportunity to connect with people across borders.

This year’s series of family meetings were attended by 174 participants in 15 different countries. It was evident to us that although the pandemic may have reduced our capacity to organise and attend cleanups, it could not dampen the spirit, energy and commitment to the cause of our dedicated volunteers.

During our meetings, we were able to share new developments and updates regarding our programmes and global strategy. It also provided an excellent opportunity for our volunteers to get to know each other and develop a synchronised approach. We encouraged this by allowing participants to make use of the breakout rooms feature in order to discuss their experiences and ideas about advancing the operations of local chapters and cleanups, especially during times of crisis.

Trash Hero World would be nothing without our family of volunteers, so we would like to thank each and every one of you for your continued time and devotion to creating a plastic-free world.

Family Meetings 2020 move online

by Seema on 17/12/2020 No comments

Like so much of our lives this year, the Trash Hero family meetings moved online, taking place virtually in November and December. After the first round of meetings, normally held in April / May, were cancelled, it was important to bring people together to reconnect and regroup – no matter what the circumstances. Our volunteers in Czech Republic, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar joined in-country sessions with Zoom or Google Meet; Trash Hero World also hosted two calls for volunteers in our global chapters.

We held breakout sessions to allow people to exchange stories from often very different experiences of lockdown; communicated important country and global updates; carried out training for different aspects of our programmes; and – as always – had some lively and fun discussions. As sessions had to be kept relatively short, we omitted our normal leaders’ academy. This will instead be made available as an online programme in 2021.

While it was impossible to reproduce the unique energy and interaction generated at an on-site meeting, the huge advantage of online sessions is that we were able to reach far more people, in far more places than ever before. This series of online family meetings engaged 276 participants in 18 different countries, compared with 197 people in 5 countries (in person) at the same time last year. Many of these participants had never had the chance to attend a family meeting previously, as we only offer them on site in countries with a large number of active chapters and to a limited number of representatives from each.

We are all hoping that we can move out of the current situation next year and return to the usual format to bring our Trash Hero family together; however we plan to keep the online sessions regardless as they proved to be a valuable tool to connect, motivate and share knowledge with our heroes around the globe.

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.

New resource library for volunteers

by Seema on 20/11/2020 No comments

As Trash Heroes, our regular cleanups make us very visible in the community. Our volunteers often find themselves invited to meetings, panel discussions or talks about waste management. Trash Hero World is committed to ensuring they are armed with the best possible knowledge about the plastic crisis and how to solve it. In this way, they become more able to influence both their local community and decision-makers.

To this end, we have:

started a series of “Zero Waste Communities” workshops in Southeast Asia (more about these will be published in a separate post),
updated our Chapter Handbook (a training guide for all volunteers) to include a simple overview and assessment of some commonly proposed “solutions” to plastic pollution,
created a free, multilingual resource library on our website to gather information on the various topics and debates surrounding the issues and
started to translate some of the existing materials into local languages to allow them to be spread more widely

Our first set of materials, a factsheet on chemical recycling, produced by the experts at GAIA, has just been published in Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai, Arabic and Czech language.

Indonesian PDF –> Daur Ulang Kimiawi
Malaysian PDF –> Kitar semula kimia
Thai PDF –> คําถามและคำตอบเกี่ยวกับการรีไซเคิลทางเคมี
Czech PDF –> Chemical Recycling (Čeština)
Arabic PDF –> أسئلة و أجوبة: إعادة التدوير كيميائياً

Chemical recycling was chosen as it is a “hot topic” and one that is frequently misrepresented. Information about such new technologies is often only available in English, making them difficult to understand and refute in the low and middle income countries where we are active – and where they are aggressively marketed.

This factsheet explains in simple terms why chemical recycling is not a silver bullet solution to plastic pollution as is claimed. In a society that urgently needs to transition from a linear, fossil fuel economy to a circular one, chemical recycling is a distraction at best. It suggests to focus resources on solutions that actually work, particularly those that stop the problem at the source.

Our goal is to do more of this translation and education work. We believe it is a valuable tool to counter industry misinformation at the grassroots and beyond.

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 issues Coronavirus advice to all chapters

by Seema on 13/03/2020 1 comment

Trash Hero’s activities are based on bringing communities together in collective action. Normally this is a great thing! However we are very mindful of the risk of continuing “business as usual” in the light of the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Like most people, we have been monitoring developments and gathering as much information as possible to work out how best to protect our volunteers and our communities. We recognise that our duty and responsibility to help contain the spread of the virus takes precedence over our standing commitment to provide weekly cleanups.

We have issued high level guidance for all chapters, that tries to take into account the very different and rapidly changing contexts across the globe. This includes a risk assessment tool and recommended additional safety procedures in cases where cleanups will go ahead. The guidelines will be published on all channels and translated into local languages where necessary.

If you are thinking of joining any Trash Hero event in the coming weeks, we urge you to contact your local chapter directly to find out if and how they are proceeding. If in any doubt, or you are a person in a “high risk” category”, it would be best to stay away from public gatherings for now.

If you’re missing the action and if safe to do so, you can always do a solo cleanup. Send a selfie to your local chapter, who will be happy to share and celebrate your acheivements. Or, use your time to help in your community in other ways if you can. Together – safely – we can still make a difference.

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.