Trash Hero have been attending this week’s Plastic Treaty Talks in Paris.The team listened to member states discussing the rules of procedure, networked with other organisations from #breakfreefromplastic working towards a strong treaty, getting to know the different delegations and their positions. Congregating in Paris, a 55-nation coalition called for a strong treaty including restrictions on certain hazardous chemicals as well as bans on problematic plastics products that are hard to recycle and often end up in nature.

Last month, Trash Hero attended the Break Free From Plastic Global Meeting in Hoi An, Vietnam. Together with over 100 core members, they discussed the Global Plastics Treaty and how to work together to make the refill revolution a reality. Trash Hero were delighted to have been invited to the event and were able to contribute their expertise on brand audits and their essential role in corporate accountability. It also was an important opportunity to bring their volunteers’ hard work and stories to a global platform.

On March 19th Trash Hero Thailand hosted a ‘Bike for Zero Trash’ event in Sam Roi Yot, with the aim to bring attention to the issue of plastic pollution and promote environmentally friendly practices. The 60km route was open to all cycling enthusiasts, from beginners to seasoned professionals. Volunteers worked alongside organizers to eliminate plastic water bottles, and instead, refill stations were installed. Participants were encouraged to bring reusable bottles or use the ones provided by Trash Hero. The event attracted 170 attendees, many of whom participated in a post-event cleanup.

In 2022 Trash Hero mobilised 54,741 volunteers, of whom 17,163 were under 16. These incredible volunteers have been part of 3,296 clean-ups; that’s an average of over 9 clean-ups a day, amounting in the removal of 148,728 kgs of trash. Data has been collected since December 2013, and you can find out about the impact to date in this video. Read more about what it means to be a Trash Hero in their latest blog.

Trash Hero are passionate about beach cleanups, which are so much more than removing plastic pollution from the environment. Here are a few reasons why cleanups are crucial in creating a plastic-free world:
🤝Involvement – A group of people come together to take action in working towards a common goal.
🗣️ Conversation – By asking questions on the origins of plastic waste, volunteers start to think about the most effective ways to reduce plastic pollution.
💛 Community – Businesses, schools, local leaders and volunteers are united in reducing plastic and protecting their communities.

Trash Hero recently brought together leaders of their chapters for volunteer training. In total, 96 participants attended from 51 chapters in 4 countries. This training is hosted in countries with a high concentration of chapters – Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Chapter leaders are invited to attend, free of charge, and provided with the opportunity to learn new skills or refresh ones they gained at previous training events. The meetings help participants strengthen their relationships and support systems, and the local knowledge shared at the events is used to help develop Trash Hero programmes and goals. Find out more in their latest blog.

Break Free From Plastic released the annual brand audit report. It brought together five years’ worth of data showing that Coca-cola, PepsiCo and Nestle have remained the world’s top polluters from 2018 – 2022. Trash Hero is one of the leading contributors to this report and is immensely proud of the volunteers’ hard work in collecting data. This data will be presented at the INV1 next week, which discusses the UN treaty on plastic pollution. The data will highlight the plastics industry’s responsibility and the need to reduce plastic production drastically.

At the end of September Trash Hero concluded a Brand Audit data collection for the year. A brand audit categorises the plastic collected at cleanups (food packaging, household products, personal care, smoking materials) and, most importantly, records the name of the parent company that manufactured it. This data is shared with Break Free From Plastic, who use it as part of their annual Brand Audit Report. So far this year they have conducted a total of 120 Brand Audits! These were completed by 57 chapters in 6 countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Switzerland, Poland and Georgia. There were 1,620 volunteers that took part, and they recorded 29,504 pieces of plastic. To find out more please check out their latest blog post.

In August Trash Hero hosted their first Family Meeting in Europe, in Svaty Jan Pod Skalou – a beautiful little village just outside of Prague, Czech Republic. It was attended by 26 participants from 11 chapters in 5 different countries – Switzerland, Serbia, Kuwait, Czech Republic and Poland. This was Trash Hero’s debut Family Meeting in Europe, bringing volunteers together for the first time meeting. This provided a fantastic networking opportunity, where friendships and support systems, something that is vital in the work that they do, were fostered

Trash Hero are delighted to announce that from January – July 2022, 26,666 volunteers (of which 8,098 were under 16) completed 1,615 cleanups, collecting 53,102 kg of trash. That’s an average of 9 cleanups and 265 kg of trash per day! During every cleanup, a chapter leader records data – the number of volunteers in attendance, the weight of the trash collected and how many kids have taken part – which is then published. Click here to view global beach cleanup statistics.