Trashtag — Before and after photos of a young man cleaning up a littered outdoor area and bagging the trash into green sacks.

Trashtag

2015hashtag challengeclassic

Published October 3, 2026

Trashtag, also known as #trashtag or #detrashed, is a social media challenge where people post before-and-after photos of outdoor spots they have cleaned up of litter. Ecological activist Steven Reinhold launched the project in September 2015, but it exploded worldwide in March 2019 after a viral Facebook post dared bored teens to pick up trash, kicking off one of the biggest cleanup trends of that year.

challenge memes hashtag memes wholesome memes social justice memes delayed virality memes

Overview

The challenge works through a simple visual format: a side-by-side photograph of a littered location, usually a beach, park, roadside or forest, next to the same spot after the poster has bagged and hauled the garbage away1. Participants tag the images with #trashtag or the related #detrashed on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Reddit to document the cleanup and encourage others to try it9. Many posts show stacks of filled trash bags lined up in the 'after' frame as proof of work.

The tone tends to be wholesome and self-motivated rather than preachy, with captions often framing the cleanup as a weekend project or a personal dare. On Reddit the cleanups spread largely through r/pics and the dedicated r/DeTrashed community, where contributors share local waterway, trail and park haul-outs2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Teton Gravity Research blog (2015) / Facebook and Reddit (2019 viral spread)
Creator
Steven Reinhold
Date
2015

Steven Reinhold, a backcountry guide and UCO Gear ambassador, announced the Trashtag Project on September 15, 2015 in a blog post on Teton Gravity Research1. He described hauling garbage out of Yosemite Valley and other wild sites and called on Instagram users to post their own cleanup photos for a chance to win sponsored gear through UCO's trashtagproject.com site3. The hashtag got some traction among outdoor sport fans but stayed niche for nearly four years.

How It Spread

The challenge broke out of its niche on March 5, 2019 when Facebook user Byron Roman shared a before-and-after cleanup photo and challenged 'bored teens' to do the same, pulling over 91,000 likes and 300,000 shares in one week4. On March 9, Redditor Baxxo25 cross-posted a screenshot of Roman's challenge to r/wholesomememes, where it hit more than 141,000 upvotes in three days5. In the comments, user FatalShart proposed naming the challenge '#trashtag', apparently unaware that Reinhold's project had already used the tag four years earlier9.

The same day, Redditor shrestaz posted a cleanup photo from Nepal to r/pics with the title '#trashtag seems to be trending', which pulled over 139,000 upvotes6. The Facebook community We Don't Deserve This Planet pushed another before-and-after that drew 18,000 likes and 20,000 shares7. By March 10, confused onlookers were asking what was going on in a thread on r/OutOfTheLoop8.

The flood of posts attracted some karma farmers, too. At least one submission was debunked as faked, with the callout post on r/quityourbullshit picking up 34,300 upvotes10.

Timeline

2015-09-15

Steven Reinhold publishes the Trashtag Project blog post on Teton Gravity Research, launching the UCO Gear-backed cleanup challenge.

2019-03-05

Byron Roman's Facebook before-and-after post calling out 'bored teens' pulls over 91,000 likes and 300,000 shares.

2019-03-09

Baxxo25's r/wholesomememes repost hits 141,000 upvotes; commenter FatalShart proposes the name '#trashtag'. The same day, shrestaz's Nepal cleanup pulls 139,000 upvotes on r/pics.

2019-03-10

Redditor agrady262 posts a 'what's going on' thread about trashtag to r/OutOfTheLoop as mainstream users try to catch up.

2019-03-11

A faked trashtag submission is debunked on r/quityourbullshit, with the callout pulling 34,300 upvotes.

How to Use This Meme

Participants typically pick a littered outdoor location, photograph it, bag the trash, then photograph the same angle again. Posts commonly show the filled bags lined up as proof and are tagged #trashtag or #detrashed on Instagram, Reddit, Twitter or Facebook9.

Frequently Asked Questions