Fed-up driver builds AI litter tracker
Fed-up Shrewsbury software developer Robin Bennett has built an AI-powered app that records and grades roadside litter from a vehicle. He hopes its data will show where rubbish is concentrated and encourage councils and campaigners to take action.
The app takes a photograph every 10 seconds and assesses visible litter against a national standard; Bennett says it can run without requiring the driver to touch the screen. It has logged more than 3,000 reports in Shropshire and over 28,000 across the UK. Bennett is sharing the data with Clean Up Britain, while Shropshire Council is discussing ways to improve litter management on the A5 and A49 with National Highways.
In short
- An AI app tracks and grades litter spotted from vehicles.
- It has logged over 28,000 reports across the UK.
- Shropshire Council is exploring improvements on the A5 and A49.
Explained simply
Roadside litter is usually reported through spot checks or complaints, which can make it difficult to compare how much rubbish is accumulating in different places. A national grading standard gives local authorities and campaign groups a common way to describe litter levels.
Robin Bennett, a software developer in Shrewsbury, has made an app that uses photographs taken from a vehicle to record and grade visible rubbish. Clean Up Britain is among the groups receiving the data, while councils and National Highways are responsible for managing different roads and coordinating work.
The records could help show where litter is most concentrated and whether patterns change over time. That may inform decisions about where to focus clean-ups or other measures, though the app’s reports are one source of information for those decisions.
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