TrashDash is the Keep America Beautiful® national initiative dedicated to promoting and eradicating trash in America through plogging. TrashDash inspires communities to actively conserve and enhance communities through ACTION.
Plogging is the combination of picking up litter while jogging. Plogging was adopted by Keep America Beautiful because it incorporates the primary areas we address – reducing litter, improving recycling, and beautifying communities – and this healthy activity’s direct connection to our vision of a world that’s clean, green and beautiful. The goal: To bring together individuals across the world to fight for a cleaner, more sustainable environment. By plogging, we can create transformative change and end litter in communities and in our waterways.
Keep America Beautiful®, the nation’s leading community improvement nonprofit organization, inspires and educates people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment. Established in 1953, Keep America Beautiful strives to End Littering, Improve Recycling, and Beautify America’s Communities. We believe everyone has a right to live in a clean, green, and beautiful community, and shares a responsibility to contribute to that vision.
Keep America Beautiful® is hosting its 2nd annual TrashDash plogging fun run on Sept. 20, 2020. The Keep America Beautiful TrashDash allows individuals around the world to participate in plogging either remotely or at our on-site event in Stamford, CT. The virtual plog provides an opportunity for individuals to participate in a fun and competitive activity and submit their results on social media. The on-site TrashDash is a structured plogging event in which participants clean up the local community.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s event brings a heightened awareness to the critical issue of littered personal protective equipment (PPE), including masks and gloves, on the ground and in waterways.
The Keep America Beautiful TrashDash is sponsored by Dart Container Corporation.
The onsite TrashDash will be held at Mill River Park in Stamford, CT. Each participant will be assigned to collect either trash or recyclables along the route. All ages are welcome.
The virtual TrashDash event is open to anyone across the world and will also be conducted on Sept. 20. Individuals are encouraged to plog at a location in their community, such as their neighborhood, nearby park, beach, or trail. Participants are asked to track results on Instagram by tagging @KeepAmericaBeautiful and including the hashtags #DoBeautifulThings and #TrashDash.
Key Messages
1. TrashDash is the engine to remove thousands of pounds of trash from neighborhoods, beaches, rivers, lakes, trails, and parks — reducing waste and plastic pollution, improving habitats, and preventing harm to wildlife and humans.
2. There is no time to waste. It’s time to rise up and meet these challenges for a better world. TrashDash can provide the information, the tools, and the community. But we need you to show up, stand up, and ACT.
3. The TrashDash movement needs everyone, at every level, to take bold action to protect our planet and create clean, green, and beautiful places, where we live, work, and play.
4. One day. One action. One movement. Join the Keep America Beautiful TrashDash on Sept.20, and together, we can plog for a cleaner, more sustainable planet.
5. Climate change threatens our planet and communities. The TrashDash is a key moment for individuals and organizations everywhere to demonstrate our shared commitment to transformative change. Your actions – big or small – are key to solving our global crisis.
Facts
1. Where can litter end up? Not where it belongs. 80% of marine debris comes from land.
2. Litter cleanups cost the United States more than an estimated $11.5 billion each year.
3. It is estimated that there will be more pounds of plastic in the ocean by 2050 than pounds fish.
4. The presence of litter in a community decreases property values by 7%.
5. Personal protective equipment (PPE), including used masks and gloves, are not recyclable. They should be disposed of in the trash – not on the ground as litter. Click here for tips on managing used PPE.
