Trash Hero Koh Phangan in Thailand has been actively organizing beach, reef and jungle cleanups since its inception, and has successfully arranged partnerships and cooperative projects with other local organizations as well. Now local businesses are throwing in their support as well.
Local businesses so often are at the forefront of our regional success stories, and their impact can have incredible effects on behavior change toward waste. Chad and Colleen, owners of Veranda Phangan, joined Trash Hero Koh Phangan to increase awareness to an ever-growing population of tourists. Within just 30 days, their yoga center distributed more than 1,200 free liters of water to its yoga therapy teacher candidates and managed to generate zero plastic through the duration of the course.
It’s steps like these that can lead to an ongoing pattern of awareness and change. Read Chad and Colleen’s story below to see what small changes business owners and individuals alike can make toward spreading awareness of the issues and reducing physical waste and plastic.
To see more news or get involved with Trash Hero on Koh Phangan, check out its Facebook page.
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Great things are happening on Koh Phangan in Thailand!
A movement of potential has dawned.
With more and more people visiting our gorgeous island, more and more trash is accumulating And more people are becoming aware of this challenge. **Progress** The awesome thing about awareness is that is also increases what people ASK for.
We are Chad and Colleen. Owners of Veranda Phangan in Chaloklum Koh Phangan, Thailand. We’ve been coming here for 15 years and finally decided to stay 1 yr ago. Our single concern becoming business owners and permanent residents of Koh Phangan was our impact on the island.
Within the first month we joined Trash hero. We were the 3rd business on the island to join and were surprised to find we were the 1st yoga and wellness related business to join.
So…we hopped on the campaign and spent A LOT of time increasing awareness through social media channels and word of mouth supporting the 2 Trash Hero volunteers who were working hard build a cohesive community here.
We ran our specialised trauma-informed yoga therapy teacher training in January and supplied our students with **FREE** Trash Hero bottles. Over the next 30 days during this intensive and professional yoga therapy teacher training we supplied over 1200 litres of FREE drinking water to our students. Amazing to realise ZERO plastic was generated in any way throughout this entire course.
What else does Veranda Phangan do to support sustainable tourism?
We clean our beach front property every day (which is common for all business owners on the island). We also know that tourism is increasing, which is great for Thailand being a tourism-driven economy. If an increase in tourism is going to be sustainable we must be aware of our Entire footprint extending beyond the environment too. For this reason we have developed a sustainable tourism policy.
What do we know for sure?
Small Family Run Businesses Do Make a Difference. Choose to support them on your travels.
What do we hope to see next?
We’re really looking forward to continuing our Trash Hero World and sustainable tourism efforts on Koh Phangan with our upcoming teacher training courses and retreats.
We also really hope people will start ASKING for recyclable bottles, or travelling with their own and making educated choices for the wellbeing of the countries they visit.
If you find yourself on Koh Phangan, stop by for a coconut and water refill. We’d love to meet you.
Safe travels
Chad and Colleen
Verandaphangan.com
#ReduceReUseRecycle #BringYourBottle #Verandaphangan #yogateachertrainingthailand #AmazingThailand
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