The Hashers not Trashers are an offshoot of the Hash House Harriers and it is kind of a good example of how the Hash House Harriers are not just a bunch of uncaring Yahoos who run around in the woods and get drunk. We also care a lot about communities and the environment that we enjoy running in so much.
A lot of people get the wrong idea anytime you use the word "hash" when talking about something and there are probably many folks out there that think we are a bunch of weed-obsessed hippies or something. That's rarely the case although I am quite certain that some of our members do partake in the stuff every now and then.
The Hashers not Trashers are a real organization but the mentality of recycling and not littering is something that kind of exists in all Hash chapters around the world.
All around the world it is quite common for people to bring bags along on our Hash events and clean up garbage while we are out there having fun with our runs and silliness. It doesn't take much time and I'll tell you this much, it is NOT difficult to find garbage on the runs we do here in Chiang Mai or anywhere else in Thailand. Some of the areas that we do our runs in are what I would consider to be disgraceful, even when they are national parks that the authorities are meant to maintain but do not do so.
On most of our runs we will have at least one person who is "taking it easy" and just walking the trail instead of trying to compete on it and it is a bit unnerving how much trash, especially plastic trash, that they end up bringing back to camp. We always make absolutely certain that we never litter and if anyone in our group were to do so, they would quickly be reprimanded. I think that one of the main reasons why our constant trespassing is tolerated by both land-owners and government is because of the fact that we always leave the sites in better shape than before we arrived and therefore our presence is seen as a service rather than a disruption.
No matter where you go in the world you will end up finding out that the Hash House Harriers are very dedicated to keeping nature as clean as possible and even though we do in fact use plastic bottles for our water needs, we encourage people to use reusable ones if possible and then we also purchase the plastic bottles that are easily recycled and we do, in fact, recycle everything that we can.
I think this is a very important part of our group. We aren't just here to get drunk and laugh at one another, we also like to do what we can to make the world, or at least the parts of it that we regularly use, a better place.
Such is the Hash way! On On!
