Houston Students Take Part In The #TrashTag Challenge

HOUSTON, TX -- Two Houston students have put down their cell phones and picked up litter as part of the #trashtag challenge, a viral internet trend where people share before and after photos of a cleared plot of land. For about four hours Sunday, Luis Garcia, 21, and his friend Jephthah Eernisse, 20, stuffed five large trash bags full of litter from Little Thicket Park near Memorial Hermann Greater Heights Hospital.

"I think when Jephthah and I both saw the whole trend of #trashtag, we saw we could help contribute to the movement by taking a day to clean a park we both enjoy," Garcia told Patch. "Among some things we found included an old blue slide for a playhouse, and a huge 5-foot infested carpet. Other than that, the most common things we found were bottles of water, beer, and cigarette butts. Some of the bottles had been there so long that water inside the glass bottles had grown little ecosystems like algae inside them."

Garcia, who is a University of Houston student, shared his before and after photo on Reddit's r/houston community, where it was met with cheers and words of encouragement. Reddit has been a big part of why #trashtag has had new life breathed into it. Over the past few days alone, Reddit has seen posts of cleanup efforts in Portland, Florida, and on the Mississippi River.

The #trashtag viral campaign was reportedly started by the outdoor gear company UCO in 2015, Yahoo reported. KnowYourMeme credits Facebook user Byron Román with resurrecting the campaign on March 5 after his before and after photo was shared 318,000 times. Garcia, for one, is grateful Roman shared it.

"I hope we see more movements like #trashbash going around the internet, because it ultimately translates into challenging people to be better members of their community, which is priceless compared to some of the internet 'challenges' we've seen in the past," Garcia said.