In his 2008 book, Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough wrote about the strange condition of garbage—the thing we toss that, as soon as leaves our hands, goes to the magical place known as “away.” It’s the out-of-sight-out-of-mind principle. Once it’s gone, it becomes somebody else’s problem.

That’s the starting point of a community project known as Litterati I learned about at the end of last year. It’s a smartphone-based initiative that hopes to produce less frivolous trash, and make some nice photos in the process.

A piece of trash is physical, something you can hold in your hand, but collectively garbage adds up to a mountain of data. That’s especially true when it comes to litter, the worst kind of trash—toss-asides that