The Hash House Harriers aren't just a club whose motto is "drinkers with a running problem," we are also a group of nature lovers that would prefer to keep the green as green as we can. All of the Hash events I have attended around the world have a focus on environmentalism but not in a preachy way. We aren't trying to get everyone to buy electric cars or tell you to cut down on your water usage, we aren't the government.
What we do tend to do all around the world though is to help to clean it up, no matter where we are.
In the USA many Hash House Harrier chapters will adopt a highway, which is kind of a crappy thing for the government to offer in order to get free labor out of people, but we enjoy doing it because it puts the name out there. I've never encountered a HHH group that bothered with self-promotion but there is a bit of pride there.
The other groups clean up wherever they are and collect trash on their runs no matter where they are. Frequently people who participate in various things will take photos of the bags of trash they collect and often it is from places you wouldn't expect.
Some just do it when they are on a walk and others have HnT days that are specifically designed to choose an area and go out there and spend the day cleaning it up.
In places like USA this is a little bit terrible that it is necessary because they pay a bunch of taxes for the government to pitch in doing this sort of work but hey look at that! They don't do it. Here in Thailand there is no such initiative and you can expect garbage to be basically everywhere that you go.
We don't specific clean up events here in Chiang Mai, but we do pass out bags at the beginning of all of our runs and encourage people to pick up trash along the way. We don't expect the runners to do this but the walkers haven't go much else to do as they waddle behind the people doing all the work.
One of my favorites that was recently posted is a "one-man-army" who set out to clean their sponsored portion of a highway on his own and not only did he discover a bunch of trash but as luck would have it he found a discarded shopping cart in the brush as well. I guess that helped with the rest of the transport but the funny thing was that he wasn't near a shopping center... How did it get there?
Every little bit counts I guess and often in our crew the people just come back with a handful of cans and bottles which in Thailand anyway, can be arranged near a bin and someone who needs the money will come by and collect it to get a bit of money from selling the recyclables. I wonder if the people that do this sort of thing realize how much more money they could be making if they just went for a walk on one of these nature trails that we regularly visit.
It is pretty terrible that someone would seek out a nature trail and then leave a bunch of plastic and cans behind but that does seem to be the norm not just here in Chiang Mai, but all around the world. I thought we were kind of past the whole littering all the time mentality but I don't think that is the case at all anymore.
Let's take a moment to celebrate the Hashers all around the world that take time out to make the world a little bit less shit by picking up trash in their free time.
Remember, you don't have to be a Hasher to do this. Maybe one day go on a walk and clean up on your own. If we all did this for just one day it would make a huge difference!
