The LitterBug project is an initiative of the independent environmental protection organization GLOBAL 2000 in cooperation with the Austrian Alpine Club Edelweiss and the Mountain Club. The initiative aims to rid Austria of litter and raise awareness of litter in nature. In this way, a valuable contribution is to be made to keeping nature permanently clean in the future.
"Littering", i.e. the littering of the environment, is a significant problem, the extent of which is increasing all the time:
"In Europe alone, an incredible 25 million tons of plastic waste are produced every year. A not insignificant part of it ends up carelessly in our nature, in our forests, our lakes and rivers after a short period of use. Once thrown into nature, a plastic bottle, for example, takes 450 years to decompose. This endangers not only animals and the environment but also humans as microplastics. The reduction of plastic in our nature is, therefore, an issue that concerns us all." - says GLOBAL 2000
That is why it is essential to raise awareness as early as possible about the severe consequences of the careless littering of our environment.
A good start for this is to collect data to find out where the garbage is located in the first place. With the Dreckspotz App, participants can take a photo with their smartphone and immortalize it on the interactive map - and then, of course, clean up the trash themselves and take it to the nearest collection point.
Building on the collected data, important questions such as "Where are the trash hotspots?" or "What types of trash end up most often in our nature?" can be answered. Furthermore, depending on the results, small (e.g. new garbage bins or the removal of illegal garbage dumps) and extensive (e.g. political recommendations for action or economic incentive systems) measures can be derived.
In this way, one actively contributes to making nature a little cleaner and ensuring that it stays that way in the long term.
Furthermore, GLOBAL 2000 also uses the App to disseminate information, valuable tips and upcycling instructions.
"If people walk through nature with open eyes, the hope is high that these people will also clean up the trash they document with the Citizen Science App themselves and thus leave nature a little cleaner". - According to GLOBAL 2000, we agree with this in its entirety!