Any strategies to mitigate waste entering the environment must be driven by research and supported by available data – but in Africa such data are scarce on the ground.
Litter is environmental evidence that needs to be documented, analysed, and tracked throughout its journey to its source. Gathering and monitoring such invaluable data from across the continent is central to SST’s mission.
Our new litter monitoring mobile app – LitterLogga – was developed for citizen scientists and researchers to record and keep track of the litter they collect during clean-ups, thereby optimising their impact. The app will also expand on the amount of data on waste that is available for Africa (and globally).
Information gathered through the app will further help refine our understanding of the litter problem from the top down, and guide us in developing more focused and sustainable waste management principles, strategies, and actions in partner communities across Africa.
With there being such limited data on the amounts and types of litter in Africa’s environments, LitterLogga is specifically designed to address this predicament, and to help Africa synchronise its marine waste management approaches and research methodologies with global best practices. Using sophisticated monitoring methods (as found in SST’s African Litter Monitoring Manual), the app aligns with an international database of litter from multiple African countries.
LitterLogga’s main functions include logging the amount, weight, type and description of collected litter, tracking litter’s location using GPS, viewing collection data, and creating clean-up groups. Collected data is sent directly to SST’s database from where it can be analysed and used to build litter baselines in support of action plans.
Tracking of litter collected also helps identify Africa’s litter patterns and trends, giving us a larger picture of litter’s migration on the continent. Such new insights will be of immense value to the world’s repository of litter evidence.
LitterLogga is now available on Google Play Store and on Apple’s App Store.
