#TrashTag challenge comes to Dhaka

Earlier this month, a new challenge emerged on social media under the hashtag “TrashTag” that quickly spread across the globe. People were invited to clean up garbage and post the before and after photos on social media.

The trending challenge has made its way to Dhaka.

Dipanwita Ridi, an animal welfare activist and founder of ALB animal shelter, went out with a couple of her friends to engage in the #TrashTag challenge. Tanvir Mreedul, in their group, had urged them to partake in the challenge.

Eventually, the group ended up cleaning a substantial amount of trash around Dhanmondi Lake, near Rabindra Sarobar. Seven large bags of plastic bottles, packets, polythene bags, wrappers, etc. were collected for recycling. 

When asked about her experience, Ridi said, “It's one of the most positive challenges on the internet, mostly for the youth. The more people participate, the more it will urge observers to avoid bad practices such as littering. And while it may seem like we cleaned up a lot of trash around Dhanmondi lake, it's nothing compared to the rest of the garbage we saw in the area. We'll hopefully be doing this at least once or twice a month from now on.”

The challenge recently came into spotlight when Byron Román, a man from Arizona, USA, shared a before and after photo of himself with trash, which he had cleaned up, on social media on March 5, 2019.

Soon people all over the world started taking the challenge on for themselves. Román's caption urged the youth to go out to a place in their locale that needs cleaning, and post a before and after picture once they were done getting rid of all the trash.

In the last two weeks, more and more people are posting pictures under the “TrashTag” hashtag, trying to both raise awareness and clean up their respective neighbourhoods.