PHOTO: Tuesdays for Trash co-founder Sharona Shnayder  reflects on the evils of plastic waste.

BY DEBORAH MOON
Sharona Shnayder, a former PDX Hillel board member, and Wanda McNealy founded Tuesdays for Trash during their final semester at Portland State University last year. 
Now the duo has teamed up with @ourstreets to plan a worldwide virtual cleanup to celebrate Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish New Year for Trees, which is often called Jewish Earth Day. The cleanup is designed to “tackle the waste management aspect of the climate crisis by cleaning up our streets, trails and local community spaces in a safe and responsible manner.” 
In addition, a $5 donation per bag collected will be donated to Flash Forest, an environmental nonprofit that uses UAV technology and ecological science to mass plant trees based on an area’s biological needs. T4T (tuesdaysfortrash.com) and Our
StreetsPDX (ourstreetspdx.org/) are providing the donations. People can verify their collection by sharing a picture of their bag on social media through tagging @tuesdaysfortrash or 
@ourstreetspdx.
Planting trees is currently the fastest and cheapest way to sequester carbon, so by helping increase this regeneration, we can begin to tip the scales on the climate crisis, notes Sharona.
This year, Tu B’Shevat falls on Jan. 27. Sharona encourages people to pick up a bag of trash Jan 23-24. “We will announce our total contribution on Jan. 27.” Sharona notes since T4T's funds are limited, it may take a few months to make the total donation.
The women encourage participants to wear a mask, gloves and social distance while out on your pickup. They also suggest visiting best practices for safe trash gathering on the bottom of their events page:  
tuesdaysfortrash.com/events.
The two women started Tuesdays for Trash to create “an immediate reminder and call to action for individuals to consistently pick up trash on that day of the week, aiding them in making it a routine part of their week as opposed to a one-time endeavor,” says Sharona. 
You can read more about the group in a Jewish Review story at jewishportland.org/jewish
review/jr-stories/psu-grads-
create-tuesdays-for-trash.
Sharona plans to move to Israel in May. “I’m hopeful with the immunizations happening right now,” says Sharona of her May move. “I’ve secured an internship with a sustainable B-Corporation in Tel Aviv. I’ll definitely keep the movement (going) despite being in Israel!”
Wanda, who plans to remain in Oregon for now, also plans to keep working on T4T.  
“We’re keeping this movement going for the rest of our lives,” says Sharona.