Geo-trashing - High-tech Approach to a Common Problem

Mike Anderson is a man of great passion. His passion is dedicated to the preservation of America's greatest and longest river, the Mississippi.

He and his wife set out on a quest to clean up a small stretch of the Mississippi near downtown Minneapolis. Armed with a kayak, GPS, digital camera, and a blog, Mike started to locate, geo-tag and photograph large pieces of trash while kayaking down the river. He then posts this information along with a description on his blog CleanUpTheRiver.com. Then anyone who visits his blog can volunteer and help out by picking up the large trash with a more suitable watercraft or vehicle at a later time.

When the city of Clemson, SC noticed that their larger garbage trucks were driving around randomly looking for larger pieces of trash that the smaller trucks could not handle they knew that it was not a very efficient way of using these vehicles.

So Jim Oswald, the city's IT consultant decided that GPS could be used by the small garbage truck drivers to locate and tag the larger pieces of garbage. Then the larger trucks could easily locate and pick up the trash at a later time.

Since implementing this plan the city estimates it is saving an estimated 350 gallons of diesel fuel a month.