311: Jeff Kirschner, part 1: Building Community Around Cleaning Litter
Since I don’t use many apps and pick up litter already, I felt modest expectations of Jeff’s Litterati, but I love it. It delivers the main things I look for: fun, community, connection, effectiveness, and free—the opposite of what many people connect with litter.
As I’m writing, the app has recorded over 5 million pieces of litter picked up by over 150,000 people in over 165 countries. I think we can safely say the app led to a huge majority of those people connecting and picking up those pieces of litter. I hope those of you who haven’t picked up litter are feeling the tug to try it out.
My experience is that the more you pick up, the more acting on litter goes to the clean part of your brain, not the dirty part, if you know what I mean. I don’t feel like I’m touching dirt, I feel like I’m cleaning my world. See where waste ends up motivates me to buy less stuff with packaging and other sources of litter, which lowers demands and can change systems.
Jeff started all that. This episode covers Jeff’s start and leads to his first environmental challenge.
Those considering acting entrepreneurially to solve environmental (or any other) problems can learn a lot from Jeff’s experience and success.