Help in the fight against littering!

We humans create a great deal of trash, often leaving it in places where it should never be. Most of our trash is plastic and it remains for a long time in nature, destroying life on our planet. We all have a responsibility and we must naturally take care of our own trash. But since some people fail to understand this, many municipalities enable residents to report trash they come across using the Infracontrol app: a photo, a location and a short description help your community make sure trash is taken care of properly.

Niklas Lennerstad, project manager at Infracontrol, tells us more and more municipalities are using Infracontrol Online to handle trash reports from urban and natural locations:

“Unfortunately, people drop litter everywhere – in streets and squares, parks and playgrounds, on beaches and in the woods. So receiving reports from the public who are out and about in nature and our cities is a valuable resource. The municipalities that use our cloud service are better able to help make Sweden a tidier place by receiving information from residents via our app and making sure that trash is taken care of.”

Littering is a growing problem, but we can all do our bit to help.

You can find trash left behind by humans in our oceans, out in nature and in our cities. According to Håll Sverige Rent [Keep Sweden Tidy] our oceans are awash with more than 150 million metric tons of plastic, increasing by between 5 and 13 million metric tons every year. Read more about this in Skräprapporten 2020 [Trash Report]. Trash is increasing by the year, and this is something we all bear responsibility for.

“No one can do everything, but we can all do something, says Johan Höglund, CEO of Infracontrol. World Cleanup Day and Keep Sweden Tidy Day, both of which took place on September 19 this year, were great initiatives for contributing to the environment. Sure, they’re just occasional events, but they’re important in highlighting the problem for our decision-makers and making us all aware of what can be done.”

Another great example of public involvement is the West Coast Foundation’s Clean Coast project, which makes it easier for people to help clean up the west coast and submit reports through the Infracontrol app. Read about it here.

Litter reported 700 times every month

More than 120 Swedish municipalities use Infracontrol Online to receive reports from residents.

“Reports can be about anything from broken lighting to potholes in the street, says Niklas Lennerstad. An increasing number are about littering. In fact, it ranks 6 among the most common causes of reports from residents.”

He tells us that the number of reports about litter is north of 700 per month for all connected municipalities.

“Residents provide valuable information about littering, enabling municipalities to act. Otherwise, there is a risk of litter staying put and destroying our environment for a very long time to come.”