New social media campaign targets litter in Wake Co

Snap, grab, toss: that's what Wake County leaders are asking residents to do.

This week, the county launched a new one-year "Clean Up Wake County" pilot program with Litterati, a litter-fighting social media app, to document and help reduce roadside litter. The goal is to pick up 20,000 pieces of litter over the next year.

"We’re really excited, because it will help us look at roadside litter in a new way," said Bianca Howard, outreach manager for Wake County Solid Waste Department. "We’re looking forward to using the data and sharing the data to help people understand how, working together, we can reduce litter in our communities."

How it works

Once a user downloads the free Litterati app, they can use it to snap a photo of any litter they find before they pick it up and throw it away.

The app uses geotagging to document the location of the reported litter. It also uses artificial intelligence to supply tags so the user can identify the type of trash.

Litterati uses the information users send in – they call it LitterData – to generate reports on everything from areas with the most litter to the most common type of trash found.

The founder of Litterati, Jeff Kirschner, started the company in California, and now lives in the Triangle area.

What it finds

For example, a study the company completed for Wake County last fall found that cigarette butts were the most common item of litter. By weight and volume, though, trash from soft drinks and alcoholic beverages topped the list.

"We were surprised to find that cans and bottles made up so much of the litter, because a lot of those plastic bottles and metal cans should be recycled and can be recycled right here in Wake County," Howard told WRAL News.

The app even tracks the brands of the litter most often found on roadsides. In Wake County, for example, the most commonly discarded restaurant cups were from McDonalds and Starbucks.

"We hope by looking at some of this data over the next year, we’ll be able to really strategize and think about where we can put our county resources to work with businesses and individuals who want to prevent litter," Howard said.

"That might be by improving recycling infrastructure, or educating and empowering consumers to make better choices and refuse some of the items that ultimately wind up as litter," she added.

Howard said the county's cost for the one-year pilot program is $6,000.

Ross: 'Super beneficial'

Raleigh resident Preston Ross founded The Great Raleigh Cleanup about a year ago to combat the city's litter problem.

So far, his group has organized about 35 cleanup events, picking up tens of thousands of pounds of trash.

"We don’t do 2 or 3 bags," Ross told WRAL News. "We fill up that truck. We fill up a trailer."

Ross was happy to hear about the new pilot project with Litterati.

"Just to kind of get some understanding and some data around where this litter actually is and the resources needed in that particular area, I think this would be super beneficial," Ross said.

He said just getting more people to think about the issue will help, too.

"If enough concerned citizens pick up one piece of trash, that will start to add up," Ross said. "It will absolutely start to add up."