IMPACT
REPORTING.
We haven't written this yet... SORRY.
2017 > 2020.
On January the 8th 2017 I posted about Trash Free Trails on Instagram for the very first time. It had been more than four years since I had first recognized the difference between the awareness of, and action to tackle marine plastic pollution and the comparative silence in ‘our world’ of trails, wild places and the terrestrial ecosystems that host them. What’s more, it had been more than four years since I had decided that I needed to try to do something about it.
What took me so long? The answer is simple! I was massively overcomplicating things. I had become bogged down by trying to ‘build’ an organisation, paralysed by a perceived need to have a strategy, a website, funding, scientific evidence and a professional team. What I had forgotten, however, is the most important part... that Trash Free Trails would not, could not exist without a strong and empowered grassroots community.
I realised that my first and most important job was to build that grassroots community. All I had to do was start!
I write this 4 years from that realisation, so it feels like a fitting moment to acknowledge that the time has come to become an ‘organisation’. We have now been a Community Interest Company for 12 months, have a wonderfully supportive network of partners, are able to pay 4 people to deliver our work, have the A – Team - a team of 25 volunteer regional representatives, and, we now have built a community of 1000s of riders, runners and roamers across the world who are ready to become stewards of their trails and wild places. We have a #TRASHMOB.
This document marks the beginning of a thrilling new phase for Trash Free Trails and we’re extraordinarily grateful and proud to have you alongside us.
Thank you for your support and friendship,
Dom & Lion