Trash collection app crowdsources planet cleanup while collecting garbage data

With the simple act of taking a picture of a piece of trash and posting it to social media, Jeff Kirschner kicked off a global social movement to help clean the planet.

The Oakland, Cali., resident is the founder and CEO of Litterati, an app that documents and tracks a community of people picking up litter.

Through the app, people in 100 countries have collected more than two million pieces of litter.

Kirschnertold the Calgary Eyeopener on Tuesdayit all began while hiking through the woods with his kids when his daughter noticed someone had thrown a plastic cat litter tub into the river. He said it reminded him of being a kid at summer camp when counselors would tell the campers to run out and pick up five pieces of litter before their parents arrived for visiting day.

"You get a couple hundred kids, each picking up a few pieces and it doesn'ttake long before you have a spotless camp. And I thought, whynot apply that crowdsourced model to theentire planet," he said.

Kirschner said he started posting photos to Instagram of trash he found in the wild. He said through the act, litter, to him, became artistic and therefore approachable.

"At the end of a few days I had 50 or 60 photos on my phone and I had picked up and properly thrown out or recycled every single piece I'd shot and I realized I was keeping a record of the impact I was having on the planet," he said.

That idea eventually took the form of afree appthat built a community while also amassing a ton of data.

Impact through data

The app tracks things like the most commonly discarded materials and product brands, as well as maps problem areas.

Kirschner said the app is about creating stories of impact through data.

Our position is not to shame but it is to hold everyone accountable.- JeffKirschner

"It's actually quite fascinating what you can learn from getting that granular level of truth and turning that into an action," he said.

According to Kirschner, a group of Grade 5 students in California used the app to identify the most commonly found litter on their own playground. When they discovered the biggest offender was the plastic straw wrappers from their own cafeteria, they went to their school's administration and convinced them to stop buying straws.

"Our position is not to shame but it is to hold everyone accountable," he said. "The purpose of Litterati is simply to empower others."

Jeff Kirschner is speaking Tuesday night at the ATB Entrepreneur Centre. The event starts at 7 p.m.

For more information, visit plasticfreeyyc.com

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With files from the Calgary Eyeopener