We all know that words have many meanings and that what we choose to call something is a reflection of the value we place on that thing.

CleanApp Foundation has been working in a field at the intersection of CleanTech/CivicTech & TrashTech for the past five years.

We know that to many people, words like CleanTech/CivicTech & TrashTech are empty buzz words. For some folks, they are misleading euphemisms or placeholders for something less exciting or interesting. We disagree.

Words Matter

There can be healthy disagreement about the scope of these various fields, but it’s undeniable that these umbrella categories allow us to imagine budding economic segments where there are numerous teams working to solve common problems using more or less similar tools, jargon, and so on.

The “-Tech” suffix is still very useful because it allows us to quality that thing that we are “-teching” — making better, easier, or faster, through technology (which is typically understood to some novel computing process, whether it’s hardware, software of a combination of the two).

TrashTech is a Thing

So, when we say TrashTech, what comes to mind are tech-based processes for emptying trash, sorting trash, reporting litter, responding to litter reports, etc.

TrashTech is both descriptive and normative. Just saying the word TrashTech is an assertion that there are numerous companies and teams working all over the world to solve a common problem. There are!

Teams like Litterati, @OpenLitterMap, CleanApp, Pirika, @WorldCleanupDay, SwachhBharat, and many others are actively developing technologies that are redefining our understanding of trash, litter, hazards, and cleanup responsibilities.

As a term, TrashTech broad enough to include low-tech trash collecting tools (pickers, tools, bags, etc.) but also super high tech tools like CleaningBots, RoboVacs, CleaningDrones, and different apps and blockchain based tools for tackling our trash/hazard processes. TrashTech also encompasses more theoretical tech — like different processes & methods for doing “trash collection” and/or “waste management”).

There’s only problem with this name. And that is … the name.