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80 Pics Of People Collecting Litter Are Both Inspiring And Revolting
People are trash. Every year, we collectively produce around 57 million tons of plastic waste and litter. Almost half of it finds its way directly into nature, where plants and animals pay the price.
To put this into perspective: the equivalent of over 2000 garbage trucks full of plastic is dumped into the world’s oceans, rivers, and lakes every, single day. And it doesn't stop there. Roughly 4.5 trillion (yes, TRILLION) discarded cigarette butts accumulate in streets, rivers, and oceans every year.
First prize would be for everyone to consume less, recycle more and stop littering. But by the time that happens, Earth may no longer be around. Thankfully, there are many people who refuse to sit around with a "not my rubbish, not my problem" mentality. They're doing their bit to clean up after others and leave the world better than they found it.
In honor of these unsung heroes, Bored Panda has compiled list of posts from the DeTrashed community. The following pictures show just how out of hand littering has become, and will hopefully inspire you to do your bit to save the planet while we still have time.
This post may include affiliate links.
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#3
You Too Can Keep The Earth Beautiful!
Kid Murray 9 hours ago
If you can keep your trash girlfriend for two years, then you can hold onto your trash for five minutes instead of throwing it on the ground.
People collectively produce about 57 million tons of plastic waste and litter every year. And nature is paying the price. Around 20 million metric tons of waste finds its way directly into the environment, where plants, animals and other organisms suffer the consequences.
Smokers are the biggest culprits, with cigarette butts being the single most common piece of litter on earth. Roughly 4.5 trillion (yes, TRILLION) discarded cigarette butts accumulate in streets, rivers, and oceans every year. Not only are they an eyesore, but they’re causing massive harm to animals and the environment.
#4
Almost Yelled At Her For Picking Up Random Trash On A Walk Until She Said, "Where's The Bin?"
StrangeOne 4 hours ago
My mom gets pretty embarrassed when I pick up trash off the ground, too. Like a 2 L Pepsi bottle randomly laying on an otherwise clean residential street. Not sure why it bothers her. It's like demeaning to her. But I don't see anything demeaning about it. I do community clean ups every spring, now. People have expressed appreciation more than criticism.
#6
This Guy Picked Up Some Litter
One study notes that even unsmoked cellulose acetate filters can be toxic to some invertebrates and plants. But once a cigarette is smoked, the filter poses an increased chemical threat.
"Cigarettes contain over 7000 toxic chemicals," reads the study, adding that some of these are readily leached into aquatic habitats. In the ocean, the cigarette butts can be lethal for certain fish and other marine life. They can also alter their growth and feeding habits.
"On land, littered cigarette butts can contaminate crops with nicotine, and reduce growth and alter productivity of common plants," it warns.
#7
We Detrashed A Lake In Texas! 4,000 Pounds Of Beer Bottles And Beer Cans. With About 30 Scuba Divers And 4 Boats. Did It In About 4 Hours
#8
By Far My Most Ambitious Cleanup. Towed This Beast Almost Half A Mile Behind My Board To Get It Out Of The River
Plastic is also a massive problem. Researchers warn that by 2050, there could be more plastic than fish (by weight) in the world’s oceans. According to the World Wildlife Fund, 1 million plastic bottles are sold every minute, but less than 50% are recycled. And that's just the bottles.
National Geographic reports that less than 10% of all plastic gets recycled globally, leaving millions of tons to crowd landfills or leak into oceans and soils each year. The United Nations Environmental Program has also warned that, if things remain as they are, plastic waste is projected to nearly triple by 2060.
#10
Akshar Forum School In Assam Accepts Plastic Waste As School Fees!
joanna werman 8 hours ago
brilliant. and then what do they do with it? can they sell it to a company so that their fees are paid?
#13
The Detroit Mower Gang’s Season Started. We Mow And Clean Up Abandoned Parks In Detroit. Join Us Every Other Wednesday Evening
#16
Smokers... Pick Up Your Damn Butts!! This Guy Is A Hero!
#17
What A Transition!
#18
The Ocean Cleanup Project's Biggest Detrasher Of The Ocean Is Now Finally Catching Plastic, From One-Ton Ghost Nets To Tiny Microplastics!
#19
Today I Collected 8 Bags Of Garbage From Nature ... We Try To Justify Our Ignorance In Front Of Ourselves And We Will Say "It's Not Mine", But We Are No Longer Entitled To That Nowadays. Nature Is Our Collective Responsibility, And This Sense Of Responsibility Motivates Me To Clean Up The Forest
S Bow 9 hours ago
Mr Sbow, my brother and I were four wheeling up a forest road in the mountains and came across an obvious party spot. Piles of trash, cases and cases of empty beer cans, booze bottles etc. We picked it all up and hauled it out. I'm sure it was back before long, but for that day at least, that little spot of forest was clean.
#20
On Average It Takes Me 30 Minutes And Under 0.3 Miles To Fill A 5 Gallon Bucket
#23
Here In Egypt, 3x1000l Bags Filled From A 100m3 Area. One Day At A Time, Thanks For The Motivation U/Prankster-Natra
#27
It Works!! 5 Months Ago I Spent 30 Minutes Cleaning This Spot. I Haven't Spent More Than 2 Minutes On It Since, But Yesterday Zero Because It Was Already Clean
#28
I Pick Up Trash When I’m Depressed Because It Nurtures Hope In Me. I Think I’m Going To Start A Club At My New Uni In Bellingham!
#29
One Of Several Handfuls Of Gender Reveal Confetti At Our New Local Playground. Please Think Of Our Wildlife
S Bow 8 hours ago
I hate these gender reveals. One guy shot at a tannerite target (an explosive set off by high capacity rounds) for a reveal and started the Sawmill fire in southern Arizona near my familys ranch. It burned 46,000 acres. The worst part was, he was a US border patrol agent who should have known better!
#31
My Son And I Won The Award For “Most Trash Collected” At The Trash Fishing Contest. We Pulled 60lbs Of Trash And Over-Filled Our 55 Gallon Barrel
#33
For The Last 2 Years My Office Has Only Been Using Styrofoam Coffee Cups, Aside From Those Who Bring Their Own Mugs. I Finally Had Enough Of It And Bought Some Mugs, Spoons, Etc. I Know This Isn’t The Typical Content, But It’s Preventative Detrashing So I Figured It May Apply
#35
Biggest Neighborhood Polluter Is Our Local News Paper. Free Weekly Mailers That No One Wants. Piled In The Gutters And Drains
Gingersnap In Iowa 8 hours ago
I don't even bring the weekly penny saver (sale ads) in the house, straight to recycle bin. I have emails from the stores I shop at.
#36
My Boyfriend Wrote A Paper On How Superworms And Mealworms Can Digest Styrofoam Into Biodegradable Waste At A Fast Rate. We Expanded It Into A Project At School This Year. This Is A Farm That I Started A Week Ago. It's Simple And Low Maintenance
#37
1st Cosplay Cleanup Successfully Completed Today With 250kg Worth Of Trash From A Sri Lankan Beach
#40
Me On The Ohio River Trash Cleanup With Living Lands And Waters. During The Week Of Cleanup, 40,724 Pounds Of Trash Was Collected! #trashtag
Bewitched One 6 hours ago
I live right on the river. That thing is so badly polluted, it’s sad. Thank you to this person for cleaning up what you did!
#41
I've Been Removing Love Locks Made Of Trash From The Brooklyn Bridge
AtMostAFabulist 7 hours ago
So people just stuck their trash on the fence? I feel I am missing something.
#42
Detrashed My Son's Bus Stop With Him This Morning! He’s Only 4, Gotta Teach Em Young To Not Be A Litter Bug!
#45
This Major Music Festival Gives You One Coin For Foods And Drinks When You Hand In 25 Trays Or 50 Plastic Cups! Great Initiave!
#46
Last Year My Son And I Started Fun Little Contests We Call Trash Fishing. Today Was Our Biggest Yet! Over 430 Lbs. Of Trash Removed From Our Waterways!
#47
It Ain’t Much But Still
#49
Not Your Typical Post But We Were Detrashing The Shores Of A Local Lake And Found These Freshly-Hatched Babies Wandering Towards The Road. Put All 9 We Found Near The Water And They All Jumped In On Their Own!
#51
My Sister And I Cleaned Up Every Park In Our Little Country Town. From 8am - 1 Pm. Help Save Our Earth, She’s The Most Beautiful Thing About Living Here And Helping Others Is Just So Worth It In The Long Haul. My Sister Is The Best Person To Clean With. She’s Just As Beautiful As This Earth
#52
3 Vehicles And 600+tires From A Creek!
#53
Nepalese Climbers Removed 2.2 Tons Of Trash From Everest While The Tourists Were Away
#57
Had A Friend Complain About Straw Bans Saying That They’re Not Even A Real Litter/Marine Debris Issue. So I Did A Quick 10 Minute Sweep Of 300ft Of Shoreline To Prove Them Wrong
#58
1 Hour Night (+10 Kg), 1st Detrashing Ever! Thank You All Of You, You Are My Inspiration For A Better World! Greetings From Mexico
#59
The Real Trash Are The People That Threw This Trash Out Of Their Car Windows
Beak Hookage 2 hours ago (edited)
In the countryside around here you'll see SO many random apple trees (not a native species) growing by the side of the road. Guess where the seeds came from.
#61
Sometimes Trash Tells A Deeper Story
#63
I’ve Been Detrashing My Town For A Few Months Now And Decided To Upgrade My Set Up So I Got One Of These Garbo Grabber Trash Baggers
#64
Divers Remove 8,000+ Lbs Of Trash In Lake Tahoe And Donner Lake. Hundreds Of Beer Cans, Stacks Of Tires, Gallons Of Fishing Line, Piles Of Plastics, Mounds Of Glass And This Is Only The Beginning. Our Clean Up The Lake Team Has Been Working All Summer On These Cleanup Projects!
#65
Lost My Job Today, Made An Impromptu Trip To The Lake Which Turned Into My First Impromptu Lake Detrashing!
Elladine DesIsles 6 hours ago
Any guesses as to why multiple pieces seem to have turned gold-toned? Has someone been dumping prototypes for Trump's White House decor?
#66
34 Volunteers Picked Up 7,000 Lbs Of Trash In Portland, Or Yesterday
#67
Detrashed An Ever Growing Pile Of Garbage At Our Favourite Beach In Pei, Canada 🇨🇦
#68
Am Lovin’ The #trashtag Trend. We Went Out Yesterday To Pick Up Some Trash, And Didn’t Get Within 100 Yards Of Our House Before We Filled Up 2 Trash Bags! Thinking About Adopting This Road To Keep It Clean Year Round
#69
In France Two Days Ago, #fillthebottle Challenge Was Created, In Which You Would Fill Empty Plastic Bottles Of Cigarette Stubs. It Has Gone Viral On Twitter & French Social Media (Not My Picture)
#74
We've Been Finding 10+ Year Old Rubbish In The Woodland Undergrowth. I Found A Glass Lucozade Bottle, Which Stopped Being Manufactured In 1983
#75
Spent An Hour Detrashing An Off-Road Area In Kuwait
#76
Beach Cleanup Day In Akita, Japan Was A Hit, But We Still Have A Ways To Go! Over Thirty Bags Collected In 3 Hours. Planning To Come Back In April—hoping We’ll Have A Chance To Totally Detrash It!
#78
First Tip From Mother Earth! Found A Plastic Baggie Half Way In The Sewer Drain With Some Cash, No House Around To Give It Back To. Cleaning Up Pays Off!
#83
Got Inspired By You Guys And Just Picked Up Some trash I Found On A Path Next To A Supermarket
#84
All In All, About 15 Bags Of Trash (Including Half A Lawn Chair!) Removed From The Chattahoochee River! (GA)
#85
Every Day At 9am, You Can Find Activists Cleaning The Streets Of Lebanon Because The Government Wont Do It!
#86
Will Ferrell Out For A Little Detrashing, It Appears
#87
A Good Boy And I Picking Up All Of The Garbage That Everyone Accidentally Dropped At The Beach
#88
May 11, 2019: #trashtag 8-Km Hike For The Environment (MT Pleasant, Moore Ravine, Evergreen Brickworks, Don River Valley, Riverdale Farm) In Toronto, CA
Elladine DesIsles 6 hours ago
This is just a few blocks from home and includes some of my favourite places to hike and escape into nature in urban Toronto. *Most* locals are pretty decent about not littering (although, walking through the Cabbagetown neighbourhood next to Riverdale Park there are a lot of signs reminding people to pick up after their dogs, so there is clearly an issue there). However, there are a lot of encampments in the Don Valley and the ravines that feed into it, shifting around to avoid eviction. Those do leave behind a lot of debris, but it is hard to fault people living in such marginal conditions. Affordable/supportive housing, mental health and a*******n care are significant issues we need to address here in Toronto, for the benefit of everyone in the urban environment, and the environment itself. Trash is not always an isolated issue.
#89
150 Lbs Of Wet Blankets, Towels And Other Discarded Stuff Hauled 300 Yards Up From The Beach
#91
Travelling Home On My Trusty Scooter And Managed To Fill A Lidl's Bag Full Of Rubbish, I Then Found A Bin, Emptied The Bag And Managed To Fill It Up Again. Surrey, England
#92
In Poland, We Have A Long Weekend Right Now. We've Decided To Do Something With Our Local Forrest. Szczecin, Poland
#93
Everyone Can Help, Can Be A Hero
#94
Me And My Dad De-Trashed A Country Road While It Was Closed For Resurfacing! We Filled The Boot Of Our Car
#95
First Detrashing Behind My Apartment Building. I Barely Made A Dent
#96
My 3yo Daughter Said “Oh No Trash” So We Picked Up This In A 15-Step Walk Through A Parking Lot
#97
As Promised, Just Finished Our 2nd #trashtag Challenge. Every Little Action Can Have A Huge Impact, Don’t Let This Challenge Die!!
#98
The Wife And I Just Bought Some Land Where The Previous Owners Were Semi-Hoarders And Locals Were Dumping. One Dumpster And Ten Pickup Loads To The Dump Down. It's A Start
#99
I’ve Been Silent Here Until Now But Here Is All The Trash I Picked Up In An Office Park Not Too Long Ago! I Plan To Head Back There Soon And Clean Up More
#100
On Election Day, I Was Cleaning Up These Railroad Tracks When A Documentarian Asked Me For An Interview; And Thus We Have This Photo
#103
Im At A Local P Event, And For Every Cigerette Picked Up, You Can Exchange It For In Game Currency At A 1:1 Ratio
#104
I Just Recently Started Skating Again And Today I Cleaned Up This Skate Park. This Was The Worst Corner With Lots Of McDonald's Trash
#105
Here Are The Numbers Of Cigarette Butts Exchanged For Ingame Currency More Then 6000 Butts Were Exchanged. After A Final Sweep Of The Event Site, I Found Under 30 Butts
#107
One Person Trying To Make A Difference, 5,307 Ponds Of Rope Removed From Bay Of Fundy Shoreline, Nova Scotia, Canada
#108
Beach-Combing In Mexico Turned Into Detrashing And I Found A Baggie Of Cocaine
#110
2-Minute Job (Literally) In Neukölln, Berlin, Germany. There Was Even A Box For Collection Waiting For Me
#111
If You’ve Already Carried It From Denmark To Germany, How Much Harder Are The Remaining 5 Meters To The Next Trash Can?
#114
I Didn’t Plan On Doing This But I Found A Box Today At The Beach (Sidi Ifni, Morocco). Anything Helps, Right?
#116
From Mexico City, My Second Detrashing And I'm Really Proud! 10 Kg For A Battle Where Our Planet Must Be Saved, If We Unite, Ww Can Do It! Thanks To All Detrashers In The World!
#117
Kicking Myself For Not Doing This Sooner! I Go Almost Everyday So I Should Have The Area Cleaned In No Time! Very Satisfying To Contribute
#118
From The Woods Where I Walk My Dog In Ireland. These Bags Are Huge Wheelie Bin Sacks. I Couldn’t Believe How Much I Found
#120
If Your Dog Poops In The Woods, Please Don’t Make It An Immortal Plastic Landmark Out Of It
#121
Some Kind Soul Has Cleaned Up Months Worth Of Crap From The Public Garden, Huge Respect To Them
#122
2 Hours Detrash 1% Of The Moron Playa, Dominican Republic
#123
The Best Part Of This Beach Cleanup Was That So Many Different People Came To Help Us, Whether For One Straw Or For One Hour. In Bali, Indonesia!
#124
Took Me A Bit To Get It; Once I Did I Realized It Belongs Here
#127
If You Can’t Make It On A Big Scale, Let’s Start Small With The Easiest Way To Keep This Going. Make It A Habit Rather Than A Trend! I Live In Malaysia And I Am Trying My Best To Educate Other Locals To Make This A Habit, Not Easy But It’s Necessary. The Next Step Is Recycling. #trashtag
#128
Went To The Park With My Dog And Picked Up All The Trash I Came By :)
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