Litter, when not cleaned up, gets into the sewer system and impacts the waste water management processes.

Litter has been shown to have negative impacts on the community.

Students can become part of the team collecting data to help the City in it’s efforts to clean up communities.

This activity is part of an important City initiative. By participating, your students become active citizens, gathering critical data.

The Streets Department has launched a city-wide project to clean up litter. To do this we need to identify where the trash is, advocate for cleaning it up, and then share our success.  Keeping track of our progress over time with ongoing data is called a LITTER INDEX.

Why do we need your help?  

The Streets Department is able to collect data on streets but not in schoolyards – that is where we need your help …we need you to collect and add data to the LITTER INDEX about the litter at your school.

Talk with students about the status of litter in the school and school yard. Have them think about and identify the areas they think collect the most litter/trash. Can they think of any reasons why those areas have more trash?

Share with them that they have been asked to help the City of Philadelphia – Streets Department to collect data on litter. Their investigation will be submitted to the City so they become part of the team working on this shared problem.

Use the linked slide deck to conduct a Litter Index of your schoolyard.

You will access a Google Maps Satellite view of your schoolyard and divide it into areas where data will be collected. The slide deck identifies required areas and students may add areas that they feel are important.

Data is collected on a google form. Instructions are included for uploading your maps, using Google Draw documents. These documents are shared with the City of Philadelphia and may also be used to design your Action Plan.

Prompts for creating an Action Plan are included in the slide deck.

Talk with students about developing an Action Plan to improve the awareness of litter in the school yard. Brainstorm strategies to encourage the school community to be aware of the issues with litter management and how they can contribute to improving the local environment.