Trash Hero

WHAT DO TRASH HEROES DO?

Action and Awareness. We pick up trash. Whether a cigarette butt on the road, or 20,000 kilos from island beaches – if we see it, we clean it! And as they say, actions speak louder than words. By spending just a few hours together picking up trash, people can see the real world consequences of being careless about waste.

Education. We back up hands-on experience with educational information about the impact that trash has on the global environment.

Sustainable Projects. We create long-term projects that bring communities together to remove and better manage their waste, and strategies that reduce the amount of waste being produced in the future.

Inspiration. We motivate people to become Trash Heroes in their everyday lives. Trash Hero Thailand alum have gone home to make their own heroic clean-ups around the world - and on beaches across all the trips that Free & Easy Traveler runs!

Trash Hero Thailand creates sustainable, community-based projects that remove existing waste, and reduce future waste by inspiring long-term behaviour change through several different projects.

It all started with the Monday beach clean ups:  No cost, no sign-up, just show up.  Motivated by their shared love of, and gratitude for, these amazing natural wonders, Koh Lipe local Yaman and Swiss scuba diver Roman started the Trash Hero Mondays project. The idea was simple and elegant: using only the resources at hand – boats, food, water, and materials donated by Koh Lipe businesses, and local and tourist volunteers, every Monday a trip would be made from Koh Lipe to a National Park beach on one of the surrounding islands. Volunteers would spend several hours picking up, sorting and bagging garbage, which would then be hauled back to Koh Lipe and later to the mainland for recycling and processing.

The idea was a resounding success! Since the first Trash hero Monday on December 8, 2013 nearly, 1,000 volunteers from all over the world have come together each week to remove more than 21 metric tons of garbage from the islands’ beaches! And every Monday the project continues, with donations by Free & Easy Traveler covering the clean up of over 1,000 kg of trash from the beaches of Koh Lipe!

Trash Hero Thailand has also started up residential trash pickup programs, waste management and removal programs, as well as providing local school education and working with businesses on green initiatives.  Between cleanups with the communities on the grassroots level and waste removal with island administration on the top levels, Trash Hero Thailand is making sure projects are being done right and carried through to the end.  

Trash Hero Thailand comes 'Highly Commended' by the Thailand Green Excellence award 2014.  We are very proud of our friends working to clean up the beaches of Thailand, keep it up Trash Heroes!