The Pirika litter-tracking
iPhone app.

Local litter hater Jim Schumacher has an iPhone, and he’s not afraid to use it. Jim’s always done his part to combat stray garbage, but his recent discovery of a Japanese-made litter-tracking, social networking iPhone app has taken his game to a whole new level. As one might assume it would.

A few years ago, Jim (an Eau Claire resident) resolved to pick up at least one piece of litter every day. He says he always knew his own efforts were just drops in the bucket, but he hoped that maybe there were thousands of others doing the same. He figured if enough people made their own contributions, albeit anonymously, the planet could end up looking a little nicer.

And now, as Jim has recently discovered, there’s an app for that. It occurred to him that someone somewhere in the world must have designed a smartphone app around connecting litter haters – something that would help foster a community of litter ninjas (our term, not Jim’s). Enter some clean freak Japanese programmers and Pirika, an app that bills itself as “cleaning the world.” It’s free and works on both iPhones and Android devices.

 

The Pirika website lets you see users (and their litter-picking progress) around the globe.

Once you’ve installed the Pirika, you simply find some litter, pick it up, take a picture, and throw it away. Sound kind of boring? It is. But the app then takes your litter pic and, using GPS coordinates, places it on a Google map of the world. That way, anyone anywhere can see a catalog of the trash you’ve picked up – and exactly where you did it. You can see everyone else in your area doing the same thing. (You can also share your progress on Facebook.) It sounds weird, but seeing all the individual pieces of trash picked up by the people in your city is really kind of cool.

 

An individual user's progress.

So how many Chippewa Vallians are doing this right now? Well, it’s pretty much just Jim Schumacher. You can check out his progress online right here. This is a newer app, and right now, only a handful of people in the United States are using it – all of the US map points are on the West coast and ... Eau Claire.

But you can change that! Download the (free!) app and join Jim in his crusade to clean up the Chippewa Valley, one chunk of trash at a time. You’ll be able to watch each other’s progress as the digital pics pile up on the map. Jim’s got a healthy head start, so you better get going. Now’s a great time to do it as there’s a bunch of citywide clean up efforts in April. Have fun!

A big thanks to Jim for getting the junk ball rolling.