Picture Courtesy: Facebook
The trash-tag challenge has gone viral, encouraging an increasing number of people in the country to clean up littered areas in their community and sharing their efforts by posting pictures on social media to show the transformation after cleaning.
The challenge, which started on social media, has made it around the world and encouraged people to get outside and help to clean up the environment. The trash-tag challenge is an effort to clean up litter and trash in public places.
Taking up the challenge, Loday Rabten, a class 12 graduate cleaned an area in Kalabazar in Thimphu along with his friends recently.
They collected about 16 sacks of waste. The team took almost four hours to clean the area.
“Trash-tag challenge in Bhutan is only about two weeks old. My friend from the Philippines sent me a message for the challenge. So, I accepted his challenge and I requested him to give me a week to identify a littered place. Following that I planned this cleaning with the help of my two friends,” Loday Rabten said.
“I came from in Paro to help my friends in cleaning the area. We will be uploading pictures after the cleaning and tag others to take up the challenge,” Tshering Yangzom said.
“Trash-tag challenge is very simple and if we think it as our collective responsibility, it would be the best way to keep our country clean,” Thinley Jamtsho said.
The trend is said to have resurfaced recently after first hitting the internet in 2015.
The Prime Minister’s official Facebook page welcomes the initiative and has also been sharing stories.
Wastes management being one of the pressing issues in the country, during one of the meet the press sessions, the prime minister said, the government has a flagship programme to address the issue.
“We know waste management is an issue and we know we have to do something on this. But we also know that nobody is taking ownership. Money that is intended for waste management is just getting lost in the system. Every system has a waste management component but no institute, no authority is taking responsibility. So, I personally took initiative on this, something different must happen on waste management. “
