Coastal Cleanup is a mobile app which provides continuous geolocation data on the distribution, and density of collected marine plastic, for use by environmental bodies, governments and the scientific community.
Coastal Cleanup is designed to crowd source the general public by game-ifying the collection of plastic beach pollution. It aims to tackle and raise awareness of this issue, encouraging people to clean up the coastal areas more often and at the same time as providing accurate data for analysis.
Costal Cleanup categorises each piece of litter, either by taking a picture of it, typing it in or using the pre-programmed drop down menu. The app then uses GPS to record the name of the beach where the litter was found. A database of all collections highlights patterns of distribution so that potential solutions to reducing litter can be identified. The user can select from different types of clean, by time spent, geographical area or distance covered. Users can view their personal statistics, such as how many points they have collected, the amount of time spent cleaning and how much litter has been collected.
Anyone interested in improving the sea and coastline environment! Its objective is to engage people of all ages and to encourage competitive participation between organisations such as schools and businesses. It has been tested by Guernsey groups of beach cleaners and community groups including scouts and ‘Womblers’.
The long-term vision of Coastal Cleanup is to gather a collection of images to improve the app’s ability to recognise intuitively the items collected. The data will be aligned with the OSPAR Commission, a multi-country initiative to protect the marine environment of the North East Atlantic, so that it can be used to tackle pollution worldwide.
Specific brand recognition will assist in identifying which products are commonly contributing to marine pollution.