Drones and AI used in UK-first to tackle litter

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole will be the focus of a ground-breaking pilot scheme this summer which will see drone-based technology used to tackle the issue of litter.

BCP Council is partnering with the environmental charity Hubbub and McDonald’s to trial a unique approach which will see intelligence gathered from drone data to inform the future placement of bins, street cleansing schedules and behaviour change campaigns to encourage visitors to dispose of their litter responsibly.

The initiative will deploy new drone-based technology to help tackle the scourge of litter in what will be the most scientifically robust litter survey ever undertaken in the UK. The technology will identify and categorise individual pieces of litter, to give unprecedented insight into what types of litter is being dropped where and when.

The campaign will use drones, fixed cameras and mobile and vehicle technology to create detailed litter maps, identifying hot spots and building an understanding of how the litter is travelling. The technology was used in the Italian town of Sorrento last summer, where it was hailed a huge success - enabling authorities to reduce litter by 45 per cent and cigarette butt waste by 69 per cent.

This summer, BCP Council will be able to use intelligence from the drone data to inform the strategic placement of bins, street cleaning schedules and engaging interventions designed by Hubbub to encourage the public to dispose of their litter responsibly.

Mark Anderson, Portfolio Holder for Environment, Cleansing and Waste, BCP Council, said: “We are delighted to have been invited to participate in this national collaboration, at no cost to the council, which will enhance our plans to tackle the issue of litter across our three towns. We’ve been voted the UK’s best beach, so this on top of the fact that we’re ranked number five in Europe, means our beaches are amongst the best in the world. We are preparing to welcome visitors, when it is safe to do so, to our beaches, parks, open spaces and high streets during what is set to be a bumper summer. We are a holiday destination and we are proud of that. Litter is everyone’s responsibility. We will be very clear when we welcome responsible visitors to our resort, they should respect and protect our resort, behave reasonably and pick up after themselves.

“As part of the council’s £3.5million summer readiness preparations, which includes littering, we are pulling out all the stops to make sure our beaches, town centres, parks and open spaces are ready for visitors. This will see extra large bins to deal with the additional waste and putting in place more daily collections, with manual crews on standby when the locations such as the promenade become busy. The pilot we are intending to run with Hubbub and McDonald’s will enhance that existing work, I’m really look forward to seeing the project get underway and the results we can all benefit from.”