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.

In July Trash Hero Indonesia helped to deliver 80 Trash Hero reusable bottles and 2 drinking water refill stations to a school in Bali. On the same day, they hosted a talk about the negative impact of single-use plastics and what to do at school and at home to reduce and reuse. Educating pupils and teachers to adopt a zero-waste culture. The bottles and filters were supplied to the school at cost price from Trash Hero Indonesia, with PT Jasa Armada Indonesia generously covering the costs.

After two and a half years of online meetings, this Trash Hero Family Meetings took place in person! The Family Meetings are their regular volunteer training and team-building events which celebrate achievements and facilitate the exchange of knowledge, experience and skills that will benefit both their community and the wider Trash Hero mission. In May, meetings were held in Czech Republic, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Across the 4 locations we had 183 participants from 80 chapters. Read more here.

Trash Hero Chapters across the world have been hosting volunteer team building events since December 2021. They were given a budget and guidelines, but each had the freedom to plan whatever they felt suitable. The events included a zero waste camping trip, inviting community leaders to discuss reducing plastic in the area; mountain hikes; lobbying to reduce single-use plastic and brainstorming for future plans. So far 58 chapters have taken part in five countries, with 598 adults and 211 children. More events are being planned for later in the year.

Trash Hero World is honoured to have been granted formal consultative status at the United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA). This “observer status” is awarded through an accreditation from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment.
As an official observer, we are now among 500+ NGOs globally who can give input to policy discussions and participate in the UNEA sessions. With the announcement of a legally binding global plastics treaty at the recent UNEA-5.2 in Nairobi, it is a very exciting time to join and to be able to give voice to the needs and views of their grassroots volunteer network, many of whom are working on the frontline of the plastics crisis in Southeast Asia.