So we started mapping plastic bag pollution around the world to raise awareness to single use plastics at bagsintrees.org & www.Twitter.com/bagsintrees.




A bag in a tree seemed like the perfect symbolisation of consumerism taking over the natural world, and it’s our duty to clean up the mess. It may seem hard to reach but team work makes it possible.

Things have changed. The plastic bag tax has been introduced in the UK and across many states in America making an enormous difference, encouraging people to reuse bags and think twice about packaging they use day to day. 

 

Our tech and initiative was simple. Use Instagram to upload a picture of a bag in a tree, use the hashtag #bagsintrees and set the location to add it to our external map. We could then view the plastic bag pollution around the world and encourage people to sign petitions to introduce the bag tax law. England has seen an 85% drop since the 5p bag tax.

Thousands of people uploaded their photos (and continue to do so!) but Instagram remained unreliable location wise. We needed to think bigger to appeal to everyone and anyone with a smart phone with internet access and a camera, not just Instagram users.

 

Our new idea: PinPoint Maps - A beautifully simple Progressive Web App (A mobile website that looks and feels like a native app and you don't have to download it). 

Anyone can create and contribute to maps with no complications.

Pinpoint specifically let’s people do 3 things:

1) Create a shareable image that has both a picture and a location on it to standard Instagram dimensions - 1080 X 1080 Pixels. 70% photo 30% Map image.

2) Add the location of something to a map with a photo. E.g A photo of a bag in a tree in a specific location in New York or a temple in China.

This is essentially like making a collage but using maps to show people the exact location of a  thing/place in the most efficient way possible. People are more likely to remember an image if it’s pinpointed location is by its side. Especially if it’s local.

3) Create their own map - Anyone can start a movement to collect the locations of something by using a fresh #Hashtag.

No need to click away to another map, the location is reinforced immediately in the image. These can then be rapidly shared across social media with a link to the map and the crowdsourcing begins.

A call to action such as signing a petition or joining a volunteer group to tackle issues would be encouraged immediately after sharing.
 

The Process: (See Pitch Deck above showing the designs).

 

1) Open Pinpoint in your phone.

2) Take/Upload a photo immediately within the browser.

3) Mark the location.

4) Add a Hashtag to categorise it.

5) Share across social media and immediately encourage people to crowd source data and locations for the same tag. #Bagsintrees #Freefood #IndependentCoffee #EcoStore #WaterRefill #Plantatree.

6) Call to action.

 

Alternatively. You will be able to views maps in your area and decide which ones would be best for you to contribute to and get engaged with or share to your community as well. 

 

You can set up any campaign you want in minutes. We're here to focus on sustainability and conservation initiatives but the possibilities are endless. 

 

A few Initiatives we want to focus on when launching PinPoint would be of course our continued love for mapping bags in trees with #bagsintrees but within the Geovation challenge we know PinPoint can address many of the problems identified within the themes.

Champion Campaigns

 

1) #GreytoGreen - A campaign to encourage people to map grey areas in their community which they would like to renovate with plants, art and community action. 

 

2) Ecostores - This could be a store which thinks zero waste or has a good range of sustainable products or vegetarian and vegan options. 

 

3) BottleDepositboxes - These will make a come back and we want our communities to feel a part of the regeneration of mapping where they feel they'd like to see one in their community and where they are actually situated in the future.

 

4) Recycling Bins - It was noted that only 20% of plastic is recycled and there's confusion about where bins are and when they're collected. We need to make this something easy to find and give people the information they need to recycle in their neighbourhood. 

These will get people familiar with the functionality and initiate immediate action whilst hopefully inspiring community members to create their own crowd sourcing campaigns in their community too. Once a certain amount of data has been collated, action groups will be organised to tackle the issues. For now a platform such as Meetup would be ideal but we’d like to build this into our platform. We have to focus on the ease of crowdsourcing data and creating awareness at this stage.

 

Request a Pitch Deck with the full designs and overview at: leo_barnett@hotmail.co.uk

We would love your Feedback at this stage.

Your thoughts, however big or small would mean the world to us. So any feedback you have please share it it below!