An online challenge that is sweeping social media has landed in Myanmar.
But unlike so many viral dares before it, the #Trashtag challenge is not stupid or dangerous but actually constructive. In the challenge, people pick a space covered with litter, clean it up and post before and after pictures.
It was reportedly created by an outdoor company in 2015 and then revived last week when Facebook user Byron Roman prompted “bored teens” to tidy their environments.
Local NGO Clean Yangon jumped in on the action by promoting the hashtag #CleanupChallenge and promising reusable bottles and keychains to those who took up the task.
University student Ei Shwe Sin Min, 18, and her three friends saw the challenge as timely encouragement to tackle a perennial dumpsite in their home city of Shwebo, Sagaing region.
“I found it fascinating when I first saw the challenge post of one of my Facebook friends,” she told Myanmar Mix. “To be honest, we failed to clean the whole of it because cleaning only the half of the dumpsite took more than three hours.
“We will do more cleanups later, not for the challenge, but for our joy because just looking at the two photos showing the longtime dump with smelly garbage become tidy and clean after a cleanup moved us.”
Buddhist monks are taking part in the challenge too. Facebook user Dhammasutesi from Taungoo pulled up his robes and for two and a half hours cleaned a litter-strewn spot next to a lake.
Meanwhile, Clean Yangon members filled 40 bags’ worth of trash in Yangon’s Hlaingthaya township on Wednesday morning (March 13).
The activists have also launched a “Clean Beach” movement with the placement of a fish-shaped bin on Chaung Thar beach in Ayeyarwady region.
Let’s hope this is one viral challenge that stays popular for a long time to come.
