8 MILLION tons of plastic garbage ends up in our oceans daily but it doesn’t all start on distant beaches. Plastic litter often begins on our own streets, in our own communities, where its first life as litter is as a visual blight on our neighborhoods and a hazard to local wildlife. It costs our communities money to pick it up and many items wash into our water systems and make their way into our rivers before they can be collected. These items may eventually make their way into the ocean to join billions of other pieces of plastic as a lasting global legacy of what we consume locally.
the Pittsburgh 10k Summer Litter Pickup Challenge
photo: Plastic Litter in Pittsburgh, Sabrina C.
Join the Pittburgh Summer
10k Litter Challenge
No Plastic Please and Pittsburgh Ploggers have partnered to run a litter pick-up challenge through the summer of 2020, with the goal of picking up and documenting 10,000 pieces of litter from the streets of the Pittsburgh area. We are using the app Litterati to easily track data on the litter collected. Our goal is to not only beautify our neighborhoods, but to get specific data on the litter collected to inform local policy and the efforts of local community organizations. The challenge runs until September 8th, 2020.
You can participate on your own by installing the Litterati phone app and entering the code “PGH10k”. Then just grab a bag and a glove, and take a walk or jog around your neighborhood, photographing and tagging what you pick up. You can also join the 10k Challenge Facebook group to join the conversation and get updates on our 10k goal and special challenge events.
While the 10k challenge runs all summer and can be done individually, we are also working with local organizations to run specific events like weekend pickups. Would you be interested in having your organization, school, church, etc. host an event as part of the 2020 10k Litter challenge? We can help support you- please reach out to info@noplasticplease.net.
in collaboration with
Plogging is a relatively new term for a not-that-new-pastime: picking up litter. The word “plogging” comes from Sweden where the trend to “plocka upp” litter while jogging has grown significantly since 2016, spreading through Europe and beyond, including here in the US. You don’t need to run to participate in plogging. Walking and picking up litter is totally fine too and can be a relaxing activity to do solo or with the whole family, kids included.
Pittsburgh Ploggers is a new local plogging group open to all Pittsburghers! Follow their page on Facebook.
Snap, Pick, Tag!
Litterati is a free app used around the world for photographing and tagging litter. It’s easy: when you see some litter, you snap a photo and then pick it up. Once you upload your photos, you can tag them to contribute to data on litter. Litterati provides global and local data on items collected including the type of object, material, their brand, and where they were found.
You can use Litterati on your own to track your litter pickups. By joining the 10k challenge using the code “PGH10K” you can be part of our litter pickup team and see your impact added to others across the Pittsburgh region.
