Planet Patrol: Picking up the pieces of a broken system!
So you’ve heard of litter picking, it is not something remarkably new, there are a lot of communities worldwide. However, planet patrol has a special app which is used to track litter collected and then use this data to hold the brands found in the environment to blame.
So What is Planet Patrol:
Founded by Lizzie Carr back in 2016, after becoming the first person to paddle board the waterways of the UK. She was made aware of the high level of waste in the environment… thus the birth of planet patrol.
“#PlanetPatrol began as a one woman mission on a paddle board and has grown into a global movement of like-minded people working together on land and water to protect the planet.”
The idea behind the movement is to get involved in local community litter picks and log everything you pick up from product to brand to quantity. Then this feeds into a larger report once a year, but more on this later.
The clean-ups and activities are often focused around an activity… stand up paddleboarding is often the main activity, but you can find so many more things from yoga to walking to plodding. The main thing is finding a group that shares a passion for cleaning up the local area.
Where are they Located:
Located primarily within the UK, you’re never too far from being involved in a community mission. However, there are now some more international groups being set up. Plus if you’re involved and interested you’re able to join the community guardian program, something I have been involved with before. Here is a list of locations that planet patrol is operating in:
Scotland
London
Germany
West Midlands
Devon
Cornwall
Hampshire
Liverpool
North West
Wales
East Midlands
How the app works:
This is the crux of the organisation in my eyes, the USP of Planet Patrol is the app, it is where you log your litter to feed into the report. To get involved and join the community on your own, you simply take a photograph of the litter you collect, tag the brand and the product, and then add it to the map for its rough location.
There is not much else to say really…
How to get involved:
If you’re not seeing any clean-ups near you, feel free to apply to be a community guardian. As someone who has been one, it is great fun, you’ll join a community of like-minded people, there is some amazing conversation and advice between all the other guardians as we all have the same goal! encouraging people to take care of their environment and hold the companies whose products find their way into the environment responsible.
If you just want to join a few clean-ups near you or find out where they are… Check out the link below
https://planetpatrol.co/clean-ups/
The latest report:
The latest report is still from 2021 as it is an annual report so the data collection for 2022 is going on. but as an idea of the effort going into the reports. There have been over 400,000 pieces of litter across 113 countries collected in the last 4 years. This is a mammoth amount, and well done to all who got involved.
The below graphic shows a snapshot of the biggest culprits in over 2021, with Coca-Cola & Mcdonald’s making up over 25% of the litter collected… madness
To read the full report and the reports from all the other years, check out the link below… after you’re finished reading and sharing the post obviously.
https://planetpatrol.co/2021-litter-report/
This is not all of the litter collected over the last few years, so if you’re already part of a group of like-minded people who help clean up our home planet. Then why not consider using the planet patrol app and help hold those who manufacture the products responsible for where they end up? This might push the world into a more circular way of product and packaging design.
I think we need more companies like planet patrol looking to hold the people responsible for manufacturing products that end up in the environment, companies should be responsible from cradle to grave for what they manufacture!
