149 – No More Trash! with Trash Free Trails
Todays Guest:
Dom Ferris – Co. Founder of Trash Free Trails
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On episode #149 we are chatting with Dom Ferris, the Co. Founder of Trash Free Trails about how the idea came about to start a registered non-profit community interest company (CIC), focusing on helping us clean our trails and reduce the plastic pollution on our trails and wild places by 75% by 2025.
Dom has been involved with educating the public and helping us clean our environment for a number of years. I first knew of Dom through his work with Surfers Against Sewage and fondly remember when they visited my home town of Portrush to educate, organise and run a very much needed beach clean.
After a couple of years running Trash For Tails as a side project, in the shadow of Surfers Against Sewage, and after a hugely successful 2019 Spring Trail Clean project, Dom knew it was time to take Trash For Trails to the next level and concentrate on it full time. So Dom got stuck in with a plan of action, a clear vision of goals he wanted to obtain, built a passionate team and growing community to help share in the attainable goal of trails free from trash. They have now built an Ambassador Team (A-TEAM) of highly committed, permanent volunteers who are active at trails across the UK and the World. And this is just the trail head, the journey is only beginning!
So tune in and find out why we have trash on our trails, how we can all help, and how to keep our playgrounds tidier and more enjoyable for all to appreciate and use.
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Find Out:
- Dom’s background working with Surfers Against Sewage
- How Dom got the idea for Trash Free Trails
- When Trash Free Trails was started
- Trash Free Trails mission & how they hope to achieve this
- How their community has been growing
- Why Dom believes we all can make a difference
- The Trash Free Trails 5 Step guide to get you started
- How you can help gather data on trash that lives at your local trails
- And how this helps with the overall goal of Trash Free Trails
- Trash Free Trails structure and how this differs from other non-profits
- How you can best get involved
- How to find out more and get in contact
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We all know the problems we have with rubbish, we see it everyday, on every journey we take, we step over it on our way to work, we see it floating in our rivers and we are now seeing it on our mountain bike trails. Why is that, why do we have this problem with rubbish? You would think that we would all take our rubbish home and place it in it’s appropriate recycle bin, after all it is our countryside, our trails, our get away from work and the general stresses of life, so why would we want to have it littered with rubbish? Is it a educational problem?
Now I know we don’t all leave rubbish behind, we take it home and do the responsible thing, but obviously we don’t all do this or we wouldn’t have this issue. So why do we leave rubbish behind? Mind-set – education? Surly you should know it is simply wrong to drop rubbish right? Or do you feel people just don’t care? Is it a total lack of consideration for other users and the environment? Is it a ‘sure somebody else will lift it’? or ‘I only visit here once a month, why should I care’? or ‘What difference will one person make dropping rubbish’? Is there more to it than that?
Dom thinks there is and he puts across a number of great points regarding the issue. And lets be totally honest, the fact that the rubbish is there means something has to be done about it, we can’t just ride past it and ignore it, we all need to make an effort, we drop it, we can lift it. Dom and the Trash Free Trails crew (that could also included you and me) are making plans to return these areas back to being rubbish free and we all can get involved. Do you think it is possible? Dom already has a couple of success stories he shares with us on the show regarding litter picks and how the trails have turned into rubbish free zones, so the evidence is there, clean trails can be achieved.
Dom and the Trash Free Trails crew have come up with a great way to catalogue the amount of rubbish that is out there, in effect helping them record how much rubbish is on our trails and how close they are to achieving the goal of reducing the plastic pollution on our trails and wild places by 75% by 2025, but they need our help and any help will be good enough (listen to the episode or visit www.trashfreetrails.org for more information). This is just one of the things Dom has planned to help tackle this problem and there is a number of ways you will be able to help out and get involved.
None of us like seeing rubbish on our trails and we should all be doing our bit to collect and recycle, but being a part of a friendly, likeminded community will help us rally together, create a social experience and help us do this no a regular basis. So tune in and have a listen to the great work Trash Free Trails has planned for the near future, and how you can get involved and find out more.
Thanks for being here. Enjoy the show!
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To Connect with Dom & Trash Free Trails:
Website: www.trashfreetrails.org
Email: dom@trashfreetrails.org
Instagram: trashfreetrails
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Resources in this Episode:
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Thanks to Dom for coming on the show and giving us all a healthy platform where we can get together and clean up our trails!
And thanks to you for being part of the show!
Join me next week for another MTB TRIBE Podcast show.
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