The #Trashtag Challenge Is Making People Clean Up Junk And Save The Environment

For more than a decade now viral challenges have gone around and many people across the world are always ready to try out these redundant challenges. But this month it’s all about the Trash Challenge. Unlike most of the previous trending challenges, this one is surprisingly interesting and helps make the world a cleaner and better place.

The #trashtag is a trend with a greener purpose than most others. It requires people that will participate in the challenge to clean up trash that has been thrown around in public places. The viral challenge is very simple to execute, all they have to do is post before and after photos of themselves cleaning up outdoor spaces such as local parks, a beach, a railway station, trail, basically any place with a lot of litter and put the hashtag #Trashtag.

The trend was originally created a few years ago, but it has recently resurfaced and become bigger than ever when it was re-popularized by Facebook user Byron Román.

On March 5, he posted a couple of photos on social media after he took up the challenge. He also asked ‘bored teens’ to take it on and do their bit by removing rubbish from outside space in their local community. He wrote:

“Here is a new #challenge for all you bored teens, he wrote alongside the pictures. Take a photo of an area that needs some cleaning or maintenance, then take a photo after you have done something about it, and post it. Here are the people doing it #basurachallenge join the cause.”

Apparently, the original post that has been edited did not include the hashtag “basurachallenge,” the Spanish word for trash is ‘Basura’.

The edited version of the post has since been shared over 316,000 times on Facebook and a lot of people are loving his idea.

Roman created a separate page for the basurachallenge specifically for Arizona. He told CBS News that he used the alternate hashtag, as it’s “the one being used in Latin America.” According to Roman, he first came across the idea behind the challenge when he came across a post by travel company Happy Tours GT. The viral #basurachallenge has been tagged in almost 1,700 posts on Instagram.

Román decided to give it a little twist and add something better. He said,

“Due to teens lately making the news about Tide pods, Bird Box, and now the Momo challenge. Maybe I could inspire a few to do something positive.”

The first photo he shared is a young man sitting on a chair, surrounded by trash, then the next photo consisted of the same man standing in the same place, now cleaned up, he placed all the trash in a green trash bags. This inspired a lot of people who have also taken up the challenge and shared it across different social media platforms. It also appears that many teenagers are finally taking some responsibility for the world they live in and in particular, their local surroundings.

During the past week, the viral hashtag has reached more than 24,000 posts on Instagram alone and the #trashtag challenge is now trending across all social media platforms.

Here are some before and after photo transformations with #trashtags:

Twitter user @frizhbee shared photos of a group of people picking up trash by the side of the road. She wrote:

I don’t have a before-and-after picture, but here’s a couple of pictures of me with my family picking up trash from the roadside whenever we made a rest stop.

Instagram user Cody Lee Hanson said: It’s the only outdoors we have, after sharing photos after he completed the challenge. We all use it for many different things but it is the only one we have. So let’s all do our part and treat it with respect. Let’s pick up after ourselves and then pick up extra. It only takes a few minutes of your time to pick up something that’ll far outlast us, humans, if left alone.

The #trashtag concept was originally part of a contest hosted and introduced by the gear company Utility, Comfort and Originality in 2015. The Trashtag Project encouraged people to clean up garbage and post pictures of their efforts on Twitter. The company promised free outdoor gear to one of the lucky winners.

The challenge has received a lot of praise from people across all social media platforms and has also been appreciated by environmentalists across the globe.

Social media users also posted their reactions in this trending challenge:

“Freaking love this #trashtag movement. Bout time we got a #challenge actually worth doing.”

“#TrashTag is the best challenge social media has ever created.”

source: endoriot