Trash Hero Lanta Teaching the Young of Koh Lanta

Trash Hero's Regular Beach Clean Up

Green Season is a tough time of year on Koh Lanta, not only because the weather can be anywhere from really hot and sunny to very, very wet, but also because we get a lot of rubbish washed onto our beaches as the wind changes.

Trash Hero Bottle

We are luckily enough to have a wonderful, charity organisation, called 'Trash Hero Lanta' who ask tourists and locals to help them clean the beaches and recycle what they can. They did a tremedous job last week, having beach clean ups in Kantiang Bay (with the Lanta Police force), Long Beach (with 7/11 staff), Klong Dao (with local hotels) and Secret Beach (with the kids of Lanta). We love and admire the work they do and are a happy sponsor of some of these events and we even provide light refreshments for the volunteers at some of these events.

Volunteers offered a beer after their hard work

However they don't want to just stop there, they want to REDUCE the rubbish getting into the seas, get people to RECYCLE as much as possible and get people to REFUSE single use products, such as plastic straws, plastic bags and plastic bottles. So they have created reusable straws (and supply paper ones), reusable bags and the Trash Hero Bottle. This bottle can be used repeatedly and in many places they will refill it with water for free!

Chai Explaining the Trash Hero Ideals to the Kids

But they also know that if you want to solve this problem long term, you have to start with the young and they have been educating the children on the island about the problem and asking them to REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE. But now they have gone a step further, In April, Shaan & Jeevan's Eco-Farm and The Kids Book Club crowdfunded for 200 Trash Hero bottles to try and make the local village school in Langsod go "Plastic Bottle Free."
 

Aruna Handing Each Child a Trash Hero Bottle

On Wednesday, 11th July 2018, Langsod school that dream became a reality and became the first school on the islands of Koh Lanta to become a Trash Hero School and gave all the teachers and kids their very own Trash Hero bottle.
 

Langsod School Children and Teachers with their new Trash Hero Bottles

Well done to Trash Hero, Shaan & Jeevan's Eco-Farm, The Kids Book Club  and the many sponsors of this event, for this great step forward. Educating the young of our island about waste is so important for the future of the island. 

The Kids Lining up for their Trash Hero Bottles

Be a Trash Hero

Trash Hero Lanta

Trash Hero need Volunteers

Pollution, rubbish and plastic are a problem on Koh Lanta, just like they are all over the world. But at this time of year, because of changing wind directions, we not only have to deal with the rubbish we create on this island, but also rubbish from elsewhere that washes up onto our beaches. At Mook Lanta Eco Resort we are committed to reducing our rubbish by reducing the plastics we use and recycling and reusing wherever possible.

Our Guests leave Toiletries they would throw away for others to use

Toys are left for other guests and given to Children Of The Forest at the end of the year

We ask our guests to reuse the water bottles in their rooms, rather than receive a new one each day (free refills throughout the day), to leave their half used toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, sun tan lotion etc) and beach toys (inflatables, fins, masks) with us instead of throwing them away (so others can use them). We, in turn, recycle our plastics, glass, cans and cardboard and try to reuse old building products in innovative ways throughout the resort.

7/11 also support Trash Hero on a Sunday

Koh Lanta is very lucky that the wonderful, Trash Hero Team, volunteer every week to run a beach clean up on the island. This is a non-profit organisation and is run by kindhearted souls who give up their time every Sunday to promote and manage a beach clean up. But they cannot do this alone and always need volunteers to help them and sponsors to help pay for essential clean up gear. This week 2 guys who cycled from Europe (Daniel Needham & Markus Kauhanan) and 1 lady (Kelly Nicholas) who cycled from Bangkok found the energy to also help with the cleanup of the beach! Daniel Needham is cycling for Unicef, so if you want to read his story and say thank you please sponsor him on here: https://www.facebook.com/dancyclesworld/

Trash Hero provide and promote using reusable Bottles and Straws

We have always been a supporter of Trash Hero, who supply businesses on the island with paper straws, reusable straws and reusable water bottles, but we are also proud to not only sponsor their clean ups in June, but also provide a beer or two for the lovely volunteers who help too.

A case of beer for the volunteers

If you are on Koh Lanta on a Sunday, and want to help, for just an hour, clean up our oceans, why not join this clean up. They also have groups in other places around Thailand.

Be a Hero!