Litter Apps: A Detailed Review
Updated: January 2024
Let’s keep track of work in our communities!!
But what app to use?
Volunteers like you and me can use one or more apps to track litter cleanup efforts. They allow you to quickly record progress, connect with others, and overall give you a great feeling.
But not all apps are easy to use or effective. Let’s take a close look and rate their performance. My main criteria in evaluating these was (1) ease of use, (2) design and navigation, (3) ability to connect with other litter cleanup enthusiasts, and (4) overall functionality.
Unfortunately there isn’t immediately available info on number of downloads, so I was not able to ascertain how widely adopted each app is. That said, I did add number of ratings (as of January 2024), which may provide an indication.
Pirika
Number of ratings: 6
Average Rating: 4.8
Pirika is a start-up created in 2011 in the Kyoto University research facilities in Japan, by Kojima Fujio. They claim that the app is “used in 111 countries, is the most widely-used anti-litter smartphone app in the world.”
Interestingly, they also provide litter research, and even using machine learning technology to study litter and aim to prevent it. As recently as May 2023 Pirika attracted venture capital from Leave a Nest Capital, a small venture capital company. With this funding, Pirika aims to accelerate its business expansion with a focus on overseas countries.
Here are a few screenshots:
I found the app very easy to use, and despite much of it being in Japanese (which I can’t read!), it has a cool, professional look. It enables networking with others, and also shows past cleanups in your geographical area. That helps one build a community, and identify other litter pickup enthusiasts in your area, in case you may want to join forces!
Litter CleanUp (previously Clean Planet Project)
Number of ratings: 42
Average Rating: 4.9
This is probably one of the newest apps. Founded by a couple of young entrepreneurs and cleanup enthusiasts in Colorado, Josh Rands and Mikaela Kauma, the app offers a lot of promise:
It has a clean, simple design, is easy to use
Provides a networking feature
Uses gamification prominently: users earn badges and get satisfying alerts when reaching higher litter cleanup levels
It has a “Donate” button. The Clean Planet Project is also a nonprofit organization, and providing users a means to send funds to help support the organization’s efforts
One drawback however is the focus on individual pieces as opposed to quantity or volume.
Litterati
Number of Ratings: 124
Average Rating: 4.1
Started by Jeff Kirschner in the San Francisco area, his popular Ted Talk on YouTube tells the origin of the app in 2016. His interest in picking up litter, taking photos and using technology and geolocation to track specific litter items even helped new legislative efforts around taxing cigarettes.
The app seems like the incumbent to beat, from a user adoption standpoint. It seems to have the greatest following, especially in Europe, and also by far the largest website traffic.
However, I found it clunky and in my view has two major drawbacks:
You cannot add a past cleanup, as it only allows one to use it in realtime. You basically have to start by taking a live photo, opening up the camera app; you cannot add a photo you have taken already, and have it saved in your phone.
It tracks individual pieces of litter, not totals by weight or volume. That seems like a major drawback, slowing down process considerably, unless your goal is to do some type of deep analysis in litter breakout by item by area.
As far as nice-to-haves, it does not seem to allow a networking feature, and interacting with other users.
Viewing other players on the map is key to creating a community.
Rubbish
Number of Ratings: 32
Average Rating: 4.3
With an origin also in San Francisco, Rubbish is an app similar to Litterati, focusing on one piece of litter at a time. While there are some networking features, it also does not allow team building / networking with other users, and does not permit loading pictures or stats of past clean-ups, only live, and piece by piece.
Their website speaks to some great efforts, including custom litter grabber, and community events in the San Francisco area. However, it does not seem current, and seems some key people have left the company, according to their LinkedIn profiles. That said, their CEO Emin Israfil announced new upcoming features coming summer of 2023.
Overall, nice colors and app design, but some flaws make it hard to use in my opinion if you are a dedicated litter pickup enthusiast.
LitterLotto
Number of Ratings: 2
Average Rating: 2.5
This app advertises a reward feature, for folks who report litter cleanups. Founded by David Landsberg in the UK, the app relies on a great concept, which is the incentivization of community members engaged in cleaning up litter. It also is part of a larger effort, and an organization named LitterAware. However, initial press has not been very encouraging and there are fears the app is being abused by people who simply want a chance to win a GBP 100 reward.
On my end, I could not sign up without providing extensive personal information, which I was not eager to do. Also I am not sure if the lottery feature is something that works in all jurisdictions and the US in particular.
That said, there is something promising about this sub-segment, which is to reward users. More innovation is likely coming this space, such as CleanCoin in Israel, where apparently you can earn tokens by cleaning up litter, which you can then use at the supermarket when shopping.
Marine Debris Tracker
Number of Ratings: 31
Average Rating: 3.2
This app has or had a lot of potential, and seems like a great effort by well-established institutions. Launched by University of Georgia professor Dr. Jenna Jambek , it is the result of a collaboration with heavyweights like National Geographic and Morgan Stanley.
However the app does not seem updated, and is very clunky to use. It tracks items by category, where the user has to basically search the predefined list of litter items and type of plastic debris found in the environment, as opposed to upload a quantity of litter collected.
That slows down the process and makes it cumbersome.
One cool feature about it is that it includes a list of organizations for which one can record their clean-ups. For example, you can find your local Keep America Beautiful affiliate, or some other volunteer group, and then account for your progress as part of that organization’s efforts in the app.
Planet Patrol
Number of Ratings: 4
Average Rating: 5
This is a UK-focused organization, a litter tracking effort by organization with same name founded by outdoor enthusiast and entrepreneur Lizzie Carr in 2016.
The app provides a world map, tracking litter with dates and photos uploaded by users. It shows heavy user adoption in the UK, but not so much elsewhere, despite notable spread throughout the world. Planet Patrol allows one to join a “mission” in the app and be part of a larger, local effort.
Adding cleanups is fairly straightforward, though a bit slow given the item-by-item cataloging feature.
Overall, I find its usefulness fairly limited, and the low adoption in the US may hinder its future use.
Clean Swell
Number of Ratings: 13
Average Rating: 4.3
Ocean Swell comes with a great promise, perhaps similar to Marine Debris Tracker, it its backing by a large organization, Ocean Conservancy. Also, another similar feature is again the tracking of item by item as opposed to by volume or quantity, which slows it down.
The app has an educational component as well, with links to articles and research (see screenshot below). That said, I did not find it very easy to use, due to the detailed item-by-item collection method.
Distinguishing Cool Feature: You get an automated email at the end with a report. No other app seems to have this feature - I found it pretty cool. Nice little report, you can forward it as an email to friends etc.
Clean Something for Nothing (CSFN)
Number of Ratings: 5
Average Rating: 5
This is a fairly recent app started by two volunteers in Europe, Lester Perez Santos and Cesar Gonzalez Fernandez.
It is quickly gaining ground, international adoption and is probably the easiest app to use among all of them: from signing up, to uploading photos of cleanups to tracking quantity and/or volumes of litter removed.
It also enables connecting with other groups, and has a gamification component, encouraging further use.
Litter Stopper
Number of Ratings: n/a
Average Rating: n/a
This app is the last one I added to the collection and the review. It is an app with significant adoption in Australia, developed by two environmental organizations: BeachPatrol and Love Our Streets.
Conclusion
Overall, in my opinion Pirika, CSFN, and CleanUp are the top contenders worth looking at. However, if you live in the UK, then Planet Patrol may be better for you, whereas if you live in Australia, consider using Litter Stopper.
For now, I upload my litter cleanups in all three of them, as it’s relatively straightforward - takes a few seconds overall in each. Also, there seems to be little overlap among their user bases, so hopefully through regularly uploading my cleanups, one of these apps will help me connect with other users & likeminded folks in my area.
So go pick up litter, make the world cleaner & better, test the apps, let me know which one you like.
