In one of our largest exchanges of the year, 70 global participants gathered on zoom to speak with Philadelphia sanitation hero Terrill Haigler AKA Ya Fav Trashman about how to raise awareness with social media. Haigler shared his whirlwind journey from essential worker to the founder of his new nonprofit Trash to Treasure.
Since January 2021, Terrill has hosted over 35 neighborhood clean-ups in addition to food drives, coat drives, and financial literacy workshops. Through social media, he activated City Council people to join him on a day of trash collection to see the neighborhood firsthand and launched peaceful protests at City Hall. “We’re changing the mindset of people, ” said Haigler.
“If you clean a neighborhood and give it back as a green space, it reduces crime by 29% in that community.” – Terrill Haigler, AKA Ya Fav Trashman
“Well done bro! You are amazing and have inspired many of us concerned about waste management and sanitary workers here in Pakistan,” chatted one participant in response to Terrill’s story and advice. Exchanges like these help make our neighborhoods here in Philadelphia and around the world a cleaner, healthier place to live.
