The pledge
I pick what I pass.
That is it. No membership fee, no minimum, no app you have to open. A grabber, a bag, and the walk you already take. Started in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Good anywhere there is ground.
Count me in
Your first name and where you walk. We add you to the pickers list and write when there is a cleanup near you.
Pickers so far
Three things, and you are one of us.
1
Get a grabber
Any grabber from the hardware store works. My son’s is a toy dinosaur. The one we are building will count for you, but you do not have to wait for it.
The one we are building2
Pick what you pass
One bag, one walk. The dog walk, the daycare run, the way to the bus. Litter you walk past twice is litter you have decided to keep.
Why that line matters to us3
Count it
Photograph the haul and log it at World Litter Run so the brand, the place, and the weight are kept. Or just text it to a friend. Both count.
Log a walk at World Litter Run
Most mornings, HalifaxMade in Halifax. Meant to travel.
Halifax is where the sidewalks, the parks, and the shoreline taught us all of this. It is where the prototype gets field-tested, where the merch gets picked up, and where the first Spogomi league is taking registrations.
Start one where you are. Carry the grabber, wear the kit, post the haul with #ickypicker, and tell us the city. We will put it on the list.
Questions people ask
- What is an Icky Picker?
- An Icky Picker is anyone who carries a litter grabber on the walks they already take and picks up what they pass. The name came from a child in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who called his dad’s grabber the “icky picker” because it picks up icky things. Icky Picker is also the merch and hardware arm of World Litter Run, the platform where pickups are counted.
- How do I become an Icky Picker?
- Three things: get any litter grabber, pick what you pass on one walk at a time, and count it. You can log a walk at worldlitterrun.com with a photo of the haul, or just share it with #ickypicker. Signing up on ickypicker.com adds you to the pickers list; there is no fee and no app to install.
- Where does the money from the shop go?
- After print and shipping costs, every dollar funds the Icky Picker prototype: a standard litter grabber with a camera in the shaft that photographs each item you pick up and sends it to World Litter Run. Contributions of $500 or more earn one of the first pickers when they are built.
- Where are the products made?
- Products are printed to order through Printful. The tuque, cap, tote and stickers are made in Mississauga, Ontario. The hoodie, tees and bottle are made in the United States for now, and Canadian orders of those may be charged duty on delivery. Free pickup is available in Halifax.
- What is World Litter Run?
- World Litter Run is a Nova Scotia nonprofit platform where volunteer ploggers log litter pickups, digital taggers identify the brand and material of each item, and companies sponsor cleanup crews with verified donations to local charities. Its Litterpedia is an open dataset of litter by brand.
- What is the Icky Picker camera grabber?
- A normal-length litter grabber with a small camera set into the tip of the shaft, looking out between the jaws at the ground. Squeezing the trigger closes the jaws and fires a burst of photos of what you grabbed; the battery and wiring live inside the hollow shaft. The current prototype, LitterCam, is a 21-gram camera strapped to a store-bought grabber, with a model that spotted 94% of items on walks it had never seen.
The kit
You do not need any of it to be an Icky Picker. It just makes you easy to ask, and every piece funds the next grabber.
