About
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We're on a mission to create a litter-free world.
Litterati is a global community that's crowdsource-cleaning the planet, from students in South Africa to activists in Italy, and neighbors across the US. And we're collecting a ton of data in the process, helping businesses and communities identify the root of the problem and drive change. It's the power of what happens when individuals join forces for a greater good.
Our story was featured at TED.
I was hiking through the woods with my 4 year old daughter when she noticed a plastic tub of cat litter lying in a creek. "Daddeeee, that doesn't go there,” she cried. Then I remembered a lesson I learned as a kid at summer camp. Our camp director would instruct each of us to pick up five pieces of trash. 200 kids x 5 pieces per kid = a cleaner camp. So why not apply that same crowdsourced model to the entire planet?
That’s when Litterati was born. You can watch my TED Talk here:
We built the Litterati App (1st version)
You can download it for free on both iOS & Android.
With a very simple app, the Litterati community has identified, mapped, and picked up ~1,000,000 pieces.
Next up: Litterati App (2nd version)
People around the world are requesting more functionality We want to build three new features to help everyone connect, leverage the data, and create even more impact.
1. Groups: Understand Combined Impact
Our most requested feature. Schools, environmental groups, scout troops, and companies, they all want to understand their combined impact to drive change for their communities.
2. Maps: Measure Actions Locally
In-app maps will provide the ability to search, browse, and filter by location or brand, so that anyone can map and measure their impact while understanding more about the litter in their neighborhood.
3. Data Analysis Tools: Drive Bigger Change
The community has already picked up nearly 1,000,000 pieces and we want to put that data to work. These additional layers of information, like retail locations, trash can placement, even weather and topography, will help us make more informed decisions and take effective action.
These three new features will enhance the user experience, resulting in cleaner, healthier, and safer communities.
Change is happening.
- In San Francisco, Litterati was used to demonstrate the percent of litter that comes from cigarettes. The data helped justify an increased sales tax on cigarettes that generated $4 million of additional revenue allocated to cleaning the city streets.
- At an elementary school in California, 5th graders tagged and mapped more than 1,200 pieces of litter on their campus. They learned that a major source of litter came from the straws distributed in their cafeteria. They petitioned their principal to stop buying the straws, and the volume of litter dropped dramatically.
- A town in Montana used Litterati to visualize the number of cigarette butts littering their public parks. The town intends to pass a tobacco-free parks policy, creating a cleaner and healthier space for everyone.
These are just some of the success stories we've heard from users of the current Litterati app. But we know that so much more is possible.
We need your help.
Whether you pledge for the Backer Badge, Dopper Water Bottle, or keeping the planet cleaner, your donation creates a bigger impact for all of us.
Word is spreading.
Join us.
It doesn't matter if you live in Honolulu or Hanoi, if you're a student or a citizen-scientist, this is a community for everyone. Download the iOS or Android app and be part of the solution.
There's a whole planet to clean. We're just getting started.
Risks and challenges
When building technology, there can always be unexpected hiccups and challenges you never saw coming. The good news is, we've done this before. The better news is, we can't wait to do it again.
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Funding period
- (30 days)