Have you heard about the remarkable innovation that turns the problem of litter into a powerful and fun social project? With a new app that is gaining traction around the world, brand names and governments will be inspired to collaborate with us collectively!
Celebrating the work of Thought Leaders in the wider world is one of our main jobs here at Ever Widening Circles. Very often in the course of our work, we truly connect with these innovators, and the one we will introduce you to in this article has become a close friend. There is a great fellow behind the great project you will learn about today!
Today we point you to another insightful project: Litterati. It’s a new way to improve your surroundings and contribute to solid data that can be used to bring us all together!

Source: Pixabay
Brilliant!
Here’s how the founder, Jeff Kirschner, puts things succinctly:
“It started with one person picking up one piece. Now, Litterati is a global community that’s crowdsource-cleaning the planet, from students in South Africa to activists in Australia, and neighbors across the US. And we’re collecting a ton of data in the process, helping businesses and communities identify the root of the problem and drive change. It’s the power of what happens when individuals join forces for a greater good.”
That kind of an introduction deserves a bit more information! Is litter something we can “understand” better? Can we really put all our differences aside and contribute to a single issue that everyone, everywhere can agree needs attention? Turns out, we can!
Here’s an innovation that just waiting to lead us all forward, together:
Terrific, huh? Have you noticed that all the most novel and truly useful innovations come from people who cleverly combine fields that no one ever thought possible?
Litterati is combing the best instincts of ordinary people, with geotagging technology, big data, artistic elements, branding, and public policy. And all along the way, it makes heroes out of all the participants. That is such a rare, precious combination of allies!
Even CNN, National Geographic, and Fast Company have celebrated the possibilities that Litterati brings forward.
If you are inspired by this movement, check out the Litterati Kickstarter Campaign! There you will find more about how Litterati actually works. There’s no telling where this will go if a lot of people get behind this with a few dollars here and there.
Did you catch the map of locations where Litterati is catching on:

Source: Litterati Kickstarter Campaign
If you’d like to share something about the Litterati movement and help get the word out where-ever you are in the world, here’s a 4 minute interview/YouTube video that we put together with the basics about Litterati!
I think people everywhere could totally get behind this! Here are some comments from the YouTube channel:
“That a good example for how the data and knowledge can lead to the understanding that would not have been obvious at first.”
Want to learn about a few more extraordinary movements?
Otherwise, scroll to the bottom of this page and you’ll see a few more of my favorite projects that are changing the world!
Interested in specifically learning more about Thought Leaders? Try clicking on the button below to look through all of the fabulous articles we have written about fabulous people!
Notes:
- “This App Makes It Fun to Pick up Litter | Jeff Kirschner.” YouTube, TED, 22 Mar. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=es4w3WUcrN0. ↩