The weekly journey to the kerbside with your bins – complete with trips, curses and flapping lids – isn’t generally a highlight of one’s week. But, much like the rest of our lives, coronavirus has changed that.

To help brighten neighbours’ day and bring a smile to their faces, people around the world are dressing up in costume to walk their bins to the kerb. Where did this new trend begin? The small town of Hervey Bay in southeast Queensland.  

Local resident Danielle Askew and her friends had been practicing such appropriate social distancing during the coronavirus restrictions that they had begun to see their trips to the kerb each week as exciting “outings”.

"A friend posted on Facebook that she was excited because it was bin day and that it is an outing," Ms Askew told ABC News. 

"I said, 'I dare you to get dressed up' and she said, 'I will'. So I made a Facebook page and did it too."

The friends created a Facebook group called Bin Isolation Outing to share pictures of other local residents getting in on the challenge, but in less than a week the challenge had gone global. The group now has nearly 300,000 members and has received thousands of pictures from around the globe of mermaids, pandas and dinosaurs walking their bins out for collection.

With life as we know it changing around us, some comic relief is much appreciated. This new trend has the added benefit of reminding people of bin night and, hopefully, encouraging people to recycle right.

 

Positive Action

• Get involved in the movement by joining Bin Isolation Outing and having your own creative trip to the kerb. While you’re at it, show off how well you are recycling to the neighbourhood!
• For information on what can go into the recycling bin in your local area, check Recycling Near You.
• If you’re getting a bit stir crazy at home, check out our tips on nature activities you can do from home.

 

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Positive Environment News has been compiled using publicly available information. Planet Ark does not take responsibility for the accuracy of the original information and encourages readers to check the references before using this information for their own purposes.