Be A Hero – A Trash Hero

Trash Hero is an energetic, volunteer-led movement that drives change within communities around the world. It motivates, educates and supports them to clean up, and prevent, plastic waste.

Lombok’s newest chapter, Trash Hero Bayan, started in August 2019, and joins Lombok’s existing chapters – Tanjung, Gili Meno, Gili Air and Mataram.

Every Friday morning, they organise a cleanup in Bayan area. They separate recyclable material from non-recyclable trash, and send it to Bank Sampah, a recycling facility.

So how does it work?

A Message From Trash Hero Bayan

It’s obvious, from speaking with people in the community, that many have little knowledge about plastic and how it harms the environment. Our weekly cleanups allow us to have an open conversation with them and try to find solutions to reduce our daily plastic use. It’s really about motivating people around us to become Trash Heroes in their everyday lives.

Every week, we change the location of our cleanups. We started at one end of the district and now we are following the main road until we reach the last village. This allows us to meet the villagers, tell them about Trash Hero Bayan and invite them to join us.

In two hours each Friday, we collect an average of 70kg of trash. About one third of that is recyclable: plastic bottles and cups; glass bottles; metal, cardboard and paper.

All the data from our cleanups is collected, and sent to Break Free From Plastic (BFFP), an NGO network that releases global brand audits to identify the top global polluters. They use the information to push for systemic change in the production and disposal of single use plastics.

An important aspect of our action is always to stay positive. We never blame; we’d rather try to find solutions together.

We especially try to engage with kids. They are the future and they are also more willing to change their habits.

We also encourage local businesses to stop supplying single-use plastic items – plastic bags plastic straws and plastic bottles – and replace them with reusable items, like tote bags and bamboo or metal straws, and set up refill stations.

This is an important first step for Bayan and we are happy to see the movement growing. Each week, new volunteers join us; sometimes tourists also take part in cleanups. Our most successful cleanup was on World Cleanup Day (WCD) on 21 September. It was the first time Bayan had participated in WCD and it was a great success. More than 500 volunteers came, including school students, office workers, guides, porters and farmers. We followed the main road of Senaru, and collected 1.4 tons of trash in just a few hours.

Everybody has a role to play: local authorities can create an enabling environment by offering adequate incentives; the commercial and business sector can reduce single use plastic; schools can educate about trash and the impact on the environment; and individual consumers can sort their trash. It’s a joint responsibility for everyone, and it starts at the household level.

Trash Hero Bayan is an open movement. There’s no sign need to sign up. All you have to do is show up on Friday morning.

Get involved, and be a Trash Hero in your community!

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