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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.
#1
So Wholesome!
RELATED:
#3
You Too Can Keep The Earth Beautiful!
Kid Murray 19 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 13 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.
#5
New Challenge
WindySwede 5 hours ago
And don't be like that influenzer that faked cleaning up on the beach, then just leaving the trash bags there and leaving.. 🤷♂️
#6
Please
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
This Guy Picked Up Some Litter
Multa Nocte (she/her 8647) 15 hours ago
We used to get that a lot when we lived in Augusta, Georgia (USA). We lived up in the suburbs and there was a long stretch of grass in front of our house and the house itself was back behind a small forest of trees, so people thought it made a good dumping ground. When my spouse drove his little riding mower down there weekly to mow the grass he also took a large trash bag to fill up with the remnants of souvenirs from all the local fast food places near our house. :-( I don't miss that. Where we live now (SW France) it's very "small town" and rural and everyone knows each other, so no one pulls this.
BrownEyedGrrrl 3 hours ago
We live in a small town on one acre of land. I have to pick up other people's garbage all the time.
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#9
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
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
The Detroit Mower Gang’s Season Started. We Mow And Clean Up Abandoned Parks In Detroit. Join Us Every Other Wednesday Evening
#12
Found $10 Picking Up Trash Tonight! It Does Pay To Save The Planet!
#13
Smokers... Pick Up Your Damn Butts!! This Guy Is A Hero!
#15
By Far My Most Ambitious Cleanup. Towed This Beast Almost Half A Mile Behind My Board To Get It Out Of The River
#17
Akshar Forum School In Assam Accepts Plastic Waste As School Fees!
joanna werman 18 hours ago
brilliant. and then what do they do with it? can they sell it to a company so that their fees are paid?
#18
Nepalese Climbers Removed 2.2 Tons Of Trash From Everest While The Tourists Were Away
#20
Proud My Buddy Does Something Like This Every Weekend Or So
#21
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 18 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.
#22
On Average It Takes Me 30 Minutes And Under 0.3 Miles To Fill A 5 Gallon Bucket
#23
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!
#24
Four Giant Piles Of Trash Later, I Smell Like Beer And Gunpowder But We Have A Clean Park!
#25
The Ocean Cleanup Project's Biggest Detrasher Of The Ocean Is Now Finally Catching Plastic, From One-Ton Ghost Nets To Tiny Microplastics!
WindySwede 5 hours ago
the "great" garbage patch is as large as texas, in the hosspot there are just 0,1 gram plastic per m2. (100 kg / km2). And in average 0,05 gram/m2. And trying to catch that diluted plastic over the size of Texas is not easy. Therefore they started to pinpoint the worst rivers flushing plastic out into the oceans!?
#26
First Detrashing With Dog And GF, Done!
#27
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
BarkingSquirell 17 minutes ago
Styrofoam doesn't get recycled, it goes to landfills due to the high costs. This was smart.
#28
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!
#29
The Real Trash Are The People That Threw This Trash Out Of Their Car Windows
Beak Hookage 12 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.
#30
1st Cosplay Cleanup Successfully Completed Today With 250kg Worth Of Trash From A Sri Lankan Beach
#31
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!
#32
One Of Several Handfuls Of Gender Reveal Confetti At Our New Local Playground. Please Think Of Our Wildlife
S Bow 18 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!
#34
What A Transition!
#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
4ocean Does A Lot For The Environment And Has Some Really Cool Bracelets, Check Them Out!
#38
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
#39
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!
#40
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
#41
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
#42
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 15 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!
#43
Me And My Group Cleaned Up Part Of This Island In The San Blas, Panama
BarkingSquirell 15 minutes ago
Usually the kuna-lai don't let it get like this: likely tourist trash.
#44
Our 1088 Kg Detrashing Of The Cook River
#46
It Ain’t Much But Still
#47
Sometimes Trash Tells A Deeper Story
#48
The Trash Fishing Crew Pulled 142 Lbs Of Trash Out Of The Detroit River
#50
Detrashed My Son's Bus Stop With Him This Morning! He’s Only 4, Gotta Teach Em Young To Not Be A Litter Bug!
Auntriarch 4 hours ago
Better than that, you're teaching him that "not my problem" isn't the answer.
#51
Here In Egypt, 3x1000l Bags Filled From A 100m3 Area. One Day At A Time, Thanks For The Motivation U/Prankster-Natra
#54
1 Hour Night (+10 Kg), 1st Detrashing Ever! Thank You All Of You, You Are My Inspiration For A Better World! Greetings From Mexico
#56
Biggest Neighborhood Polluter Is Our Local News Paper. Free Weekly Mailers That No One Wants. Piled In The Gutters And Drains
Gingersnap In Iowa 18 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.
#58
Lost My Job Today, Made An Impromptu Trip To The Lake Which Turned Into My First Impromptu Lake Detrashing!
Elladine DesIsles 16 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?
#59
Detrashed An Ever Growing Pile Of Garbage At Our Favourite Beach In Pei, Canada 🇨🇦
#60
I've Been Removing Love Locks Made Of Trash From The Brooklyn Bridge
AtMostAFabulist 16 hours ago
So people just stuck their trash on the fence? I feel I am missing something.
#61
This Major Music Festival Gives You One Coin For Foods And Drinks When You Hand In 25 Trays Or 50 Plastic Cups! Great Initiave!
#62
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
#63
34 Volunteers Picked Up 7,000 Lbs Of Trash In Portland, Or Yesterday
#64
3 Vehicles And 600+tires From A Creek!
#66
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
Auntriarch 4 hours ago
I've got the grabber, just need the bag holder. Pink for preference (to match my flamingo hat)
#67
Paws On Plastic! Random Acts Of Green!
#68
874 Lbs Of Trash Picked Up!! Awesome Event At Ferry Point Park In The Bronx!
#69
Will Ferrell Out For A Little Detrashing, It Appears
#70
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
#71
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)
#72
Detrashed 1 Block In My Philadelphia Neighborhood. Filled 4 Contractor Bags!
BarkingSquirell 9 minutes ago
I wonder why the civic government didn't get involved, it's their jurisdiction.
#74
Every Day At 9am, You Can Find Activists Cleaning The Streets Of Lebanon Because The Government Wont Do It!
#76
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 16 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.
#78
In Poland, We Have A Long Weekend Right Now. We've Decided To Do Something With Our Local Forrest. Szczecin, Poland
#79
One Person Trying To Make A Difference, 5,307 Ponds Of Rope Removed From Bay Of Fundy Shoreline, Nova Scotia, Canada
#81
Please Don’t Set Helium Balloons Free. Cleaning Up This Morning In Broswere Bay, NY
#82
Got Inspired By You Guys And Just Picked Up Some trash I Found On A Path Next To A Supermarket
#83
Everyone Can Help, Can Be A Hero
#85
We've Been Finding 10+ Year Old Rubbish In The Woodland Undergrowth. I Found A Glass Lucozade Bottle, Which Stopped Being Manufactured In 1983
#86
All In All, About 15 Bags Of Trash (Including Half A Lawn Chair!) Removed From The Chattahoochee River! (GA)
#87
Spent An Hour Detrashing An Off-Road Area In Kuwait
#88
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!
#89
Me And My Dad De-Trashed A Country Road While It Was Closed For Resurfacing! We Filled The Boot Of Our Car
#90
A Good Boy And I Picking Up All Of The Garbage That Everyone Accidentally Dropped At The Beach
#92
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
#93
A Local Beach Clean Up In Scotland! An Event I Organised For My 20th Birthday
#94
Started Small - Detrashed A Bus Stop, 2 Bags Of Trash In 30 Minutes
#96
I Didn’t Plan On Doing This But I Found A Box Today At The Beach (Sidi Ifni, Morocco). Anything Helps, Right?
#97
If Your Dog Poops In The Woods, Please Don’t Make It An Immortal Plastic Landmark Out Of It
#98
As Promised, Just Finished Our 2nd #trashtag Challenge. Every Little Action Can Have A Huge Impact, Don’t Let This Challenge Die!!
#99
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!
#100
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
#101
150 Lbs Of Wet Blankets, Towels And Other Discarded Stuff Hauled 300 Yards Up From The Beach
#102
On Election Day, I Was Cleaning Up These Railroad Tracks When A Documentarian Asked Me For An Interview; And Thus We Have This Photo
#104
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
#106
2-Minute Job (Literally) In Neukölln, Berlin, Germany. There Was Even A Box For Collection Waiting For Me
#108
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!
#109
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
#110
Beach-Combing In Mexico Turned Into Detrashing And I Found A Baggie Of Cocaine
#111
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
#112
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
#113
First Detrashing Behind My Apartment Building. I Barely Made A Dent
#114
My 3yo Daughter Said “Oh No Trash” So We Picked Up This In A 15-Step Walk Through A Parking Lot
#115
Some Kind Soul Has Cleaned Up Months Worth Of Crap From The Public Garden, Huge Respect To Them
#116
2 Hours Detrash 1% Of The Moron Playa, Dominican Republic
#118
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
#119
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
#120
If You’ve Already Carried It From Denmark To Germany, How Much Harder Are The Remaining 5 Meters To The Next Trash Can?
#122
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!
#123
Went To The Park With My Dog And Picked Up All The Trash I Came By :)
#125
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
#127
Took Me A Bit To Get It; Once I Did I Realized It Belongs Here
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What do you think ?
Ace 7 hours ago
It's sickening that this sort of public-spirited action is even necessary. One of the things I love about living in Switzerland is that it's close to 100% litter-free; you just do not see rubbish on streets, parks or forests. I recall in the first few months I was living here, in a large city, a group of three of four school-age kids crossed the street, one of them took something from her pocket and a sweet wrapper fell to the ground. A tram was approaching so they carried on across, but immediately it had passed she went back and picked her rubbish up. It was the way it was all so normal and automatic that struck me, plus of course the fact that she had previously put the wrapper in her pocket in the first place. Kids are just brought up to be respectful, some things are simply not acceptable.
David Paterson 7 hours ago
There are a lot of stories about how trash gets there in the first place. Some of them are frightening. It's not always mundane.
Ace 7 hours ago
It's sickening that this sort of public-spirited action is even necessary. One of the things I love about living in Switzerland is that it's close to 100% litter-free; you just do not see rubbish on streets, parks or forests. I recall in the first few months I was living here, in a large city, a group of three of four school-age kids crossed the street, one of them took something from her pocket and a sweet wrapper fell to the ground. A tram was approaching so they carried on across, but immediately it had passed she went back and picked her rubbish up. It was the way it was all so normal and automatic that struck me, plus of course the fact that she had previously put the wrapper in her pocket in the first place. Kids are just brought up to be respectful, some things are simply not acceptable.
David Paterson 7 hours ago
There are a lot of stories about how trash gets there in the first place. Some of them are frightening. It's not always mundane.
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