Fostering collective action against marine pollution through Debris Lore, an app that uses machine learning technologies to help citizen volunteers document the quantity and types of waste found during beach cleanup campaigns.
Define the problem/need you are solving or addressing with your project. How does it address the Open Call criteria, such as environmental impact, social engagement, circularity, user experience, resource efficiency, and community-driven solutions?
Despite various government commitments, an estimated 53 million metric tonnes of waste are expected to enter aquatic ecosystems by 2030. This growing crisis highlights the urgent need to understand the threats pollution poses, not only to marine and coastal ecosystems, but also to human health.
Debris Lore addresses this challenge by enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of waste data collection through citizen-science initiatives. Using machine learning, the app empowers volunteers to document and classify marine debris more effectively, identifying materials such as plastic, cardboard, and metal with greater speed and precision.
By augmenting volunteer efforts, Debris Lore improves data accuracy, scalability, and classification speed, enabling broader and more effective environmental monitoring. This data-driven approach supports the development of evidence-based policies, legislation, and sustainability action plans at local and regional levels. Additionally, the platform fosters social engagement by increasing community awareness, education, and participation in tackling marine pollution.
Please describe your project, reflecting on the concept, inspiration, materials, technical aspects, methods and process(es).
Debris Lore was born from my firsthand experience participating in a beach cleanup organised by Plástico Precioso Uramba, a citizen-science initiative in Colombia. This project brings together volunteers, both locals and visitors, to clean beaches, learn about plastic pollution, and transform collected materials into new resources. Witnessing their community-driven approach to engagement and education inspired me to create a tool that empowers volunteers through accessible technology.
The app activates the phone’s camera and uses a pre-trained machine-learning model to identify, classify, and count waste items within the field of view.
Key features include:
• Survey Details Form: volunteers input key location data before beginning cleanup efforts, ensuring valuable contextual information.
• Automated Object Recognition: the app scans and categorises waste (plastic, cardboard, metal, etc.), increasing data accuracy and efficiency.
• User Profile & Achievements: volunteers can track their contributions, visualise their impact, and stay motivated through engagement-driven features.
What do you think makes your project innovative compared to the existing efforts and ideas in the field it addresses?
The differentiation factor of Debris Lore is its usage of computer vision to classify waste more quickly and accurately. This technology reduces the manual effort required for data collection, allowing volunteers to maximise their time and therefore collect more high-quality data and evidence on the types of waste polluting specific areas.
While other apps exist to replace traditional paper-based surveys, also known as data cards, they still rely on input boxes, dropdowns with pre-defined options, and count boxes to collect and record data. Users are often presented with these interfaces, which are time-consuming and often lead to volunteer fatigue during the classification process.
Debris Lore reinvents and enhances this current process with the integration of computer vision for waste tracking. The app aims to expand the scale and quality of environmental monitoring efforts, enabling better-informed policies, and engaging new and existing audiences in cleanup efforts.
Does it impact or reflect young people need(s) and how?
This project reflects on the need and the rights of young generations to learn and take action on the current climate crisis. Citizen science projects are powerful in their use of collaboration, sense of belonging, and group support, from which young people could benefit. Additionally, the use of new technologies, such as AI has an extra engagement element with young audiences, unlocking big potential to inspire career paths in technology, environmental sciences, or sustainability-focused industries.
Debris Lore is a project that seeks to fulfil different needs, starting with the need for the physical well-being of communities and nature achieved through the demand for better waste management, to the need for learning, participating, and contributing to finding feasible solutions for a sustainable future. This project was born from creativity and personal experiences, and in telling the story, this project hopes to inspire creatives and creators to ideate integral and ethical technologies.
