Pic, App Your Trash!

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Japanese company PIRIKA has developed an app encouraging users across the world to do their bit for their local environment and pick up rubbish.

Autor*in Anna Rees, 07.23.13

Japanese company PIRIKA has developed an app encouraging users across the world to do their bit for their local environment and pick up rubbish.

Trash collection. It’s square one when it comes to everyday civic engagement in eco-topics and is often the cornerstone for instilling environmentally responsible actions in the next generation. Well, coupling this generation’s and the next’s love of all things tech with our civic duty to keep our backyards trash-free, one company in Japan has developed an app which encourages people to pick up rubbish in their local area.

The idea behind PIRIKA is simple: pick up a piece of trash; photograph it; and upload that photo to the PIRIKA system which then automatically plots your good deed on a global map, thereby simultaneously helping the envrionment and scoring the user some hefty brownie points (or should that be greenie points in this case?).

The app is free to download for iPhone and Android, is currently in use in 66 countries and has to-date helped in getting 220,000 pieces of trash off the streets and into rubbish bins where it belongs. The company also offers a web-based version for corporations and organisations looking to engage in rubbish collection as a CSR activity which allows staff to communicate amongst each other on trash pick-up events via a personalised platform.

Their online map shows rubbish collection happening in real time – head over to their website to check out the spot pick-ups taking place right now and download the app from iTunes or Google Play.

Author: Anna Rees/ RESET editorial

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