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TRASH TALK - Trash Trip

Use the Marine Debris Tracker app to collect trash, log it, and track it.


Transcript

Usually, when I get off of work, or when it's the weekend, and I want to spend some time outside, I walk from my house down to a park that's close by, or just walking kind of aimlessly honestly sometimes. And when I do, I normally like to bring my trash grabber and a bag just in case I come across any trash on the ground.

Of course, here I am today in Baltimore, and there is some trash that I've just come across right here. So now I'm going to use the Marine Debris Tracker app, so that we can keep track of the kinds of trash that we're seeing.

As I come across some trash, I normally just take out my phone, and I go to the Marine Debris Tracker app. I make sure I take a photo, and then I go to the category that says Paper, Paper Bags. I add, and then I pick up the paper bag, put it inside my reusable bag, and keep it moving.

So I just want to give you a chance to see the app that I'm using, so that we can track the trash that I'm finding as I'm walking. So I'm using the Marine Debris Tracker app. This is what it looks like. So we have Plastic, Medals, Glass, Cloth even, Paper, and Lumber. There's even such things as Fishing Gear. You can choose one of the categories if you want to just automatically jump to it, or you can scroll the screen so that you can choose the category yourself.

One thing that's also really cool is that under each category, there are kind of like these sub categories under the sections. So under Metal, there's aluminum or tin cans, aerosol cans, metal or bottle caps, metal fragments. And you see that there's a spot for you to increase the number of those types of trash that you find, and then a place for you to hit Add when you're ready to submit it.

And so for the ones that I've collected, and if you want to see the ones that you might have collected, you can go to Items Collected at the top. It says that I have 11 items that I have logged so far. So you just hit this arrow. And once you hit the arrows, you'll see a map pop up with all of the locations where you have logged an item. They get a pin. So each of these 11 pins are the ones that I've collected so far this morning.

There are seven photos that I've logged. There are two aluminum or tin cans, one beverage bottle, one plastic bag, two metal bottle caps. And then when I'm ready, you just hit Submit here. And then it will go ahead and complete my trash trip for the day.

So it looks like we're getting close to the water, which means we're about to finish our trash trip. And I can notice from here just some small items of trash on the sidewalk and even some in the water. And so like honestly, right here in front of me, right? It's like a wet wipe. So we can log this of course in our app--take this trash up like we've been doing, especially because now we're closer to the waterway. And so we want to make sure that we are preventing these items from getting into the water.

There's another plastic bottle here. So we earlier found a beverage bottle. Here is another one. Plastic bottle. Add it in the bag. I really am collecting this stuff, everybody.

There is a plastic bottle that's in the water there.

There's another piece of plastic, and then there's something that I can't quite make out from here, but there is something else over there as well. So we know that the trash can into the water.

And so we want to prevent that by picking up as much as we see on the ground as we walk. It's really important that we try to keep our neighborhoods clean, and the streets clean, and the grass clean, and because that does go into our waterway and affects wildlife. And we want to make sure that we have as much of a positive impact as possible.

So everyone, I've finished my trash trip, and it was a really great trip honestly. I collected this bag of trash, and I'm going to make sure that I dump it into the trash can when I get home.

And I challenge all of you to do your own trash trip. Use the Marine Debris Tracker app to collect your trash, and to log it, and track it.

The goal, remember, is to keep our waterways clean like this one. It's a really easy and fun way for you to get outside and do your own science.