Powell River uses smartphones to battle illegal dumpers

Illegal dumping in Canada's backwoods is a perennial problem, but one B.C. city is looking to smartphone technology to help curb the problem.

District officials in Powell River, on the northern part of B.C.'s Sunshine Coast, are encouraging residents to download the Trash Out app.

Abby McLellan, waste management educator with the Regional District, says the app is easy to use.

"If you see illegally dumped refuse, you snap a photo with your phone and then when you're back in reception, you can upload that photo into the Trash Out app," she explained.

"Your phone when you took the photo recorded the GPS location ... so instead of having to verbally explain these back road areas, the GPS location is recorded [and] uploaded onto a map."

Users can use the app to document which areas need to be cleaned up, what kind of garbage is at the site, and how much garbage is there.

"People can have more information about the sites that they are going to [ahead of time]," she said. "You can also click off a site when it's been cleaned."

One of many methods

This particular app was created by a group of private developers and is used worldwide, but many other municipalities are using similar technology to thwart illegal dumpers.

The City of Whitehorse developed its own app called Whitehorse Waste that works in a similar way.

A community group in B.C.'s Okanagan region installed motion-detecting cameras to catch dumpers in the act.

McLellan said she decided to start using this app after her colleagues in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island reported some success with it.

"Previously we kind of had to have this ongoing paper copy [of where dump sites were] and the directions varied in quality," she said.

"This app is a really great tool because its constantly updated by people and anyone can go on at anytime and see the exact location and then use their phone to also help navigate them to these spots."

As to whether the app might have the negative effect of leading people to dump in certain sites because they know there's already trash there, McLellan has a back-up plan.

"If folks are using this to just go and find dump spots, it's going to make that site accumulate more and more and that might be a spot where we put a wildlife kind of camera to try and catch people," she said.

People who see illegal dumping take place are encouraged to report it to B.C.'s conservation service.

Listen to the interview with Abby McLellan on CBC's On the Island: