Step one
Do your pick
Head out exactly as you normally would. Nothing to start, nothing to stop, nothing to forget. Your hands stay free for the job.
A civic record for volunteer litter picking
The work happens.
Then it disappears.
Not any more.
Every week, thousands of volunteers clear litter from Britain's roads and verges — and almost none of it is ever recorded. Trash Tribes is a shared map where every pick becomes a permanent, visible part of the record.
Free, browser-based, no app to install. Takes about a minute to join.
Why this exists
A bag is just a bag.
A filled bin bag tells you nothing. Not where the litter came from, not what was in it, not how quickly that verge fills again, and not who keeps quietly clearing it. Councils can't see volunteer effort. Volunteers can't see each other. The same lay-by gets picked twice in a week while a mile of lane waits months.
The people already doing this work have produced years of data that nobody has ever written down.
Trash Tribes replaces that invisibility with a persistent map: named roads, dated picks, honest coverage, building season after season into something that has never existed at scale — a grounded picture of litter, and of the people who deal with it.
How it works
Pick as you always have. Then draw it.
No tracking, no app running in your pocket, no device to remember to charge. This version works entirely after the event.
Step two
Draw your route
Back home, click where you started and where you finished. The line snaps to the road and follows every bend for you. Covered several roads? Add each one to the same pick.
Step three
It joins the record
Your pick appears on the shared map — teal while it's recent, deepening to green as weeks pass. The road keeps its full history: every date, every bag, every contributor.
Straight with you from day one: this first version is picker-reported. You draw it, we trust it. That's a provenance difference, not a quality one — and when GPS-verified tracking arrives in a later phase it will sit on top of the same record as an added tier, never replacing what you've already contributed.
The record so far
What's been written down.
Every figure here comes from a volunteer who went out, did the work, and then took a minute to log it. None of it existed anywhere before.
Why it's different
Built by someone who actually does this.
Every rule below exists because it matters on the verge, not because it looked neat in a spec.
Two sides, two records
A road isn't one line. Each side carries its own history, because you can clear one verge and leave the other untouched — and the map should say so.
Junctions break the line
Draw past a side road and the record splits there automatically. One pick becomes the several road sections it really was, without you clicking anything extra.
Partial stays partial
Cleared two thirds of a lane? Two thirds is what shows. Nothing is ever rounded up to a complete road, and uncoloured means no data — never "clean".
Hazards, not bans
Flag a blind bend or a verge with nowhere to stand. It warns the next picker; it never tells anyone where they may or may not go.
Depth, not just presence
Kerb line, verge, or back to the hedge — and whether deeper was even reachable. The next picker learns whether it's worth returning.
Your group, not your name
Picks are credited to your picking group by default, not to you personally. You choose what appears, and you can change it whenever you like.
The map
Try the sample area
A demonstration area around Crowborough Beacon in East Sussex, populated with sample data. Click any coloured line to see how a road's history builds up. Real picks need an account — which is free, and takes about a minute.
Loading the sample area…
Recent pick
Historical pick
High risk stretch
Zoom in to Close and the two verges separate into their own records — that's the level a picker works at.
Where this is going
Roadmap
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Now
The web map
Draw your picks by hand, build the shared record, flag high-risk stretches. Simple, honest, and open to anyone with a browser.
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Next
The app, with GPS
Live tracking from your pocket while you pick. Verified sessions join the same map as an added tier — nothing you've drawn is lost or downgraded.
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Then
Tribes & coordination
Group coverage maps, reservations so two people don't clear the same lane on the same morning, and shared recognition for communities already doing this together.
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Later
Data that changes things
Coverage reporting for councils, and evidence for the bodies that hold producers responsible for what ends up on our verges. Volunteer effort, finally counted where it carries weight.
Pickers & groups
Get involved
Whether you're out daily with a patch you know by heart, or pick when the chance comes up, the record needs you. Questions, ideas, or your group's story:
Councils, partners & funders
Work with us
Trash Tribes is building the volunteer data layer that formal waste tracking leaves out entirely. For pilots, partnership and data conversations:
Placeholder addresses — update before external distribution.