🕹 App turns litter picking into a game

According to Optimist Daily gamification has proven to be an excellent way of mobilizing communities to create healthier, greener or safer habits. In the UK there is a gamification initiative called Litterlotto. The initiative encourages passersby to pick up trash for proper disposal while it at the same time enters them into a prize draw for cash. Litterlotto is an app you simply download to your phone.

This is how the app works: First of all people pick up trash and put them into a public waste bin, taking a picture of them doing so. After that they simply upload the photo to the app and this makes them qualified to win different smaller spot prizes and provides them with an entry to a monthly prize draw. There are a few rules to make sure the system isn’t misused. One of the rules is that each entry must include a piece of non-organic litter, for example bottles, cigarette butts and packaging. Trash from stuff that’s supposed to be consumed at home, like for example food cans, are not considered eligible.

Litterlotto’s corporate sponsors provide the prizes and they vary depending on the location. Now, however, the UK’s monthly jackpot is 10 000 GBP and the spot prizes can differ from 5 to 250 GBP. Originally, the app developers trained the technique in Denmark, where it was very successful.

The first winner of the UK’s Litterlotto was recently announced. This person picked up around 400 litter items and won a jackpot prize of 5 000 GBP.

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