It’s disappointing that an app has to be created to encourage people to bin their litter. You’d have thought that by now we’d have evolved far enough to figure out that if we have some rubbish then we put it in the nearest bin, not just leave it for someone else to pick up. According to Keep Britain Tidy there’s an incredible “two million pieces of litter are dropped in the UK every day” which let’s face is shocking. Anyway an app that launched in November 2021 has been actively encouraging people to clean up the streets by offering prizes. LitterLotto – which is not a lottery – have partnered with McDonalds to offer cash prizes in regular free to enter prize draws. Whilst it’s good that McDonalds are supporting this venture we think that car number plates and names on all drive-through items would actively reduce litter quite effectively. Anyway that’s probably never going to happen so let’s see how you could be a winner by binning some litter.
How LitterLotto Works
To get started with LitterLotto you first need to download the app from either the Apple or Android stores. It’s free and easy to set-up. At the start you’re asked for an email address and password then you need to add some details. In case you’re like me and think you need to scroll through 100s of months to get to your birthdate then click the year first to get a pull down option. It’s not very clear you can do this. According to LitterLotto you need these identifiers so that they can pay you your prize if you win. Finally to complete registration you’re asked about email preferences. To participate in LitterLotto you need to take pictures using the app as you bin your litter (or someone else’s litter that you’ve collected because they’re scruffy). Simply open the app, take a picture via the app, and submit your entry to be in the draw for the monthly jackpot. There doesn’t seem to be any limits to the number of entries you can make.
Rules & Regs
Going for a walk, picking up some litter and placing it in the bin whilst photographing yourself doing it sounds pretty straightforward but there are some rules. And a lot of the rules are surrounding what defines litter. According to the terms “litter” is defined as the packaging of goods that are designed to be consumed on-the-go (i.e out of the home) and will usually be manufactured from paper, cardboard, pastic, glass or wood. Waste food that is usually consumed in the home is not litter nor are the containers that hold this food. Discard shampoo bottles are also not thought of as litter nor is human waste such as nappies (although why people don’t put this stuff in the bin is beyond me). Breaking up packaging into multiple entries is also not on and you need to show in your image that you’re disposing of the rubbish in an appropriate manner. Only accurate and complete entries will be accepted so make your bin it to win it efforts perfect each time is our advice.
Instant Win Prizes & Jackpots
As well as a monthly jackpot prize there’s a weekly jackpot prize (currently £1000) and “1000s of instant win prizes” where you can win between £5 and £250 just for binning your litter. It’d be nice to see a list of winners or some kind of notification that “Great Uncle Bulgaria of Wimbledon Common has just won £5” so as to give encouragement to others and also let people know these prizes are being awarded. According to the details on the app, LitterLotto have given away £125,000 of prizes already including £25,000 to Andrew of Manchester who won the UK March Jackpot. Apparently Andrew was “lost for words” when he received a winning phone call from Simon “the Lord of Litter”. Jackpot winners are also announced on LitterLotto’s social channels (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) where they’ve also recently posted about their first Irish winner.
Our Thoughts On LitterLotto
As mentioned at the start we think it’s actually rubbish that UK people need to be encouraged to dispose of litter. If people actually used bins in the first place then our surroundings would be much tidier. We know some fast food restaurants actively try and keep their areas tidy but we think they need to do more. Kudos to McDonalds for partnering with LitterLotto in this case but why aren’t KFC, Burger King, Costa, Starbucks etc all over this too? What happens when McDonalds decides they’ve milked their “look we’re doing our bit for keeping things tidy” and withdraw support? Where does that leave LitterLotto? However we shouldn’t dismiss any efforts in making our streets and surroundings tidier places and if this app encourages others to join the likes of Keep Britain Tidy and those who do a bit of litter picking without reward day in and day out then it’s got to be good. The app when trialed in Demark apparently resulted in “almost 85 per cent of all the litter binned being picked up from the ground by tens of thousands of users”. So go ahead and download the LitterLotto app, see if you can do a few entries each week and make sure you’re bin it to win it. Everyone else – just put your rubbish in a bin – then we’ll all be winners.