Litter Tracking Solutions with RMIT and Melbourne Water

RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia in collaboration with Melbourne Water are on a mission: to educate their community about the environmental and financial implications of littering through their Little Trackers campaign, launched in May of 2019.

Supported by the Victorian Government, 100 of our 4G Oyster2 tracking devices were placed into plastic bottles and released across 20 rivers and creeks in Melbourne to explore how litter travels through waterways.

Data from Device Manager and White-label GPS tracking with Telematics Guru is exported for use in RMIT’s custom-built tracking application “Litter Trackers,” which is updated every 24 hours to show the location of their devices (i.e., simulated litter). Clicking on a specific tracker allows users to follow its journey as it travels to the Port Phillip Bay. You can follow the campaign on their website.

According to RMIT, “95% of litter transported through stormwater drains into rivers, ultimately ends up on beaches in Port Phillip Bay. From cigarette butts to plastic bottles, most of what we drop on our streets is washed into the stormwater system by rainfall, travels via our waterways to our bays and washes onto our beaches.”

The tracking data collected tells a compelling story: from pocket to Bay, how long does it take for rubbish to make its way to public beaches? How does extreme weather and aquatic vegetation impact travel? And when rubbish becomes trapped, what are the environmental impacts on marine environments and wildlife?

We’ve been following “The Litter Trackers” campaign since launch and are thrilled our Oyster2 devices are being used to increase awareness of the implications of littering.