Livestreaming is an opportunity to participate in digital social life, both for streamers and their audience. This participation is associated with the possibility of spreading content considered as socially harmful. Although trash streams have been popular in Central Europe for several years, they are still not fully characterized. Previous studies define them rather operationally – for the needs of a given analysis. This study fills that gap. Based on long-term observation of trash streamers activity and review of the literature and press reports, the authors provide a comprehensive description of trash streamspointing to differences in nomenclatureused in Poland and worldwide.The article also provides methodological guidelines for the analysis of trash streams. The authors developed these guidelines on the basis of the analysis of the literature and their own research experience.