Week 15 - PIRIKA!

Image from blogs.independent.co.uk

You know how obsessed we all are now with our camera/photo applications on our smartphones - especially the one application known as Instagram. Most iPhone users would have it installed, but now with the rise of Android, this application is practically used by billions worldwide! It is afterall free, and one of the most easy-to-use social media photo-sharing applications there are. We use it to snap photos of our #ootd or #wiwt ('outfit of the day' or 'what I wore today'), photos of our food before we dig in... Basically, photos of everything happening in our lives. Some examples of what one would post on instagram are:

Art...

Scenery...

#ootd & #wiwt ...

Own pictures (OPs)...

Outings with friends

And even, mismatched shoes...?

But what about photos of garbage? (Yep, you read that right - GARBAGE!)

While it may sound like a turn off at first, this is actually a really innovative solution that has helped to properly dispose of more than 95,000 pieces of garbage in over 60 countries. PIRIKA - which actually means 'clean and beautiful' in one of the native Japanese languages called Ainu – is a mobile application that hopes to kick off a movement for garbage-picking and reducing, reusing & recycling worldwide. Similar to the way in which Instagram works, PIRIKA allows users to snap a photo of the trash they find and share it on PIRIKA, Facebook, or Twitter before throwing it into the garbage bin.  It displays where garbage has been collected via some form of geotagging technology (which is able to determine location of one's whereabouts - just like Instagram!) and allows users to comment and give thanks to one another for making the world a cleaner and greener place. 

Let's take a look at how PIRIKA works:

PIRIKA is very easy to use!

 1. Find litter

2. Take a photo with PIRIKA

3. Throw it away

I think it's really amazing how the ever-so-innovative Japanese are coming up with inventions that surprise us. Now this is a true social innovation that combines a technology we all know and love (and it helps that we use it practically every single day too) with an underlying social motive in saving our environment. I think I'm gonna go download the PIRIKA app for myself too right now ☺☺

PIRIKA: 'clean and beautiful'

References

Ip, M. (2013, January 2). Japanese app "pirika" helps clean the world. Social enterprise buzz. Retrieved on 30 January 2013 from http://www.socialenterprisebuzz.com/2013/01/02/japanese-app-pirika-helps-clean-the-world/