--- title: Viral Challenge #trashtag Persuades People to Pick Up Litter description: The #trashtag hashtag went viral over the weekend, challenging social media users to clean up their communities canonical: https://time.com/5548966/trashtag/ author: Ciara Nugent article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-03-11T12:40:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:47.063Z og:title: Viral Challenge #trashtag Persuades People to Pick Up Litter og:description: It's an unusually wholesome internet trend og:url: https://time.com/5548966/trashtag/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b73a2ea86e17845/69894687b21a9c0aea50040d/gettyimages-998268334.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5610 og:image:height: 3156 og:image:alt: litter-trashtag-viral-trend og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Viral Challenge #trashtag Persuades People to Pick Up Litter twitter:description: It's an unusually wholesome internet trend twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b73a2ea86e17845/69894687b21a9c0aea50040d/gettyimages-998268334.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # People Are Picking Up Trash in Parks and Beaches for the 'Trashtag Challenge' > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: A Pilot Whale Has Died in Southern Thailand After Swallowing 17 Pounds of Plastic Waste [Watch (HLS stream): A Pilot Whale Has Died in Southern Thailand After Swallowing 17 Pounds of Plastic Waste](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/faZQT5L9.m3u8) (1:10)  _Published 2018-06-04. A pilot whale died last week in southern Thailand after eating more than 80 plastic bags and other debris, Agence France-Presse reports._  by [Ciara Nugent](https://time.com/author/ciara-nugent/)  ## Ciara Nugent Mar 11, 2019 12:40 PM UTC  Monty Rakusen – Cultura RF/Getty Images  by [Ciara Nugent](https://time.com/author/ciara-nugent/)  ## Ciara Nugent Mar 11, 2019 12:40 PM UTC As online challenges go, #trashtag, which went viral on social media over the weekend, is a pretty wholesome one. Hundreds of people shared photos of themselves litter-picking in trash-strewn parks and streets on Saturday and Sunday, while calling on others to start cleaning up their communities. The idea for #trashtag has been around for several years, with [one company](https://www.snewsnet.com/press-release/uco-launches-trashtag-project-to-keep-nature-beautiful) promoting the idea back in 2015 as a way to protect threatened wilderness areas. But it gathered steam over the weekend, as users on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/trashtag/?hl=en), [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/wholesomememes/comments/az3ejn/this%5Fshould%5Fbe%5Fthe%5Fnew%5Fchallenge%5Fto%5Fmake%5Fthe/?utm%5Fsource=reddit-android) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/hashtag/trashtag?f=tweets&vertical=default&src=refgoogle) shared dramatically different before and after photos of one wooded area where a man bagged up hundreds of plastic objects — accompanied with an invitation to find a place “that needs some cleaning or maintenance” and “take a photo when you have done something about it.” The idea soon spread, with some social media users incorporating “trashtag” into their weekend trips. > [](https://twitter.com/frizhbee/status/1104596839511277569) > [](https://twitter.com/steben316/status/1105065198799544320) Others cleaned up in their local communities. 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