The PFM Map enables spatio-temporal tracking based on color-coded pollution density, ensuring your data becomes part of the bigger picture of plastic-pollution and its elimination.
The Map features site ratings, cleanups, natural conditions, and community practices that influence plastic pollution. For site ratings the Map accepts diverse data, from crowd-sourced photo-video to quantitative sensor data. To submit a site through your computer (mobile version pending), upload photo/video of the site documenting the extent or density of macroplastic and/or microplastic pollution according to your best judgment on a simple color scale: Red, Purple, or Blue. The PFM Map is unique in featuring clean/Blue sites, which our members seek for plastic-free enjoyment.
Decide a park, beach, lakefront, trail, plaza, or even a streetcorner to add to The Map. Look-up or estimate the acerage of the site; include parking areas (usually bad) and adjacent natural areas of parks (often good). Go there! Survey the site and count all the plastic pieces you see: Fewer than 4 pieces per acre (4000 square meters) qualifies as a Blue site, over 400 pieces per acre is Red, and Purple is in-between.
Example: You're rating a park that's 4.6 acres. The Blue threshold for this park is 18.4 pieces, which you can round-up to 20 pieces, and the Red threshold is 2000 pieces. You look around and can tell there are fewer than 2000 pieces, so it's not Red. Start counting...if you count more than 20 pieces you can stop and call it Purple, if not then it is Blue and you found a gem.
Take enough photos to summarize the site and support your rating. It is good to always include a landmark (statue, bench, building, water body, large rocks, large tree or bush) in at least one of the photos for reference to satellite imagery. Microplastic photos are necessarily closeups, but should be accompanied by a conventional landscape photo. The gallery below shows examples of each category. There are also cleanup categories for the nobility among you (#trashtagchallenge). Let PFM map your noble path!
You'll need to specify the site location, which is in the photo metadata on most modern cell-phone cameras. It is also easy to do using Google Maps. Just click on the site location and Google Maps will display the coordinates to enter on the form here. PFM will annotate your photos, including photo credit in your name if you request.
We cannot control plastic pollution until we can measure it, so be part of the solution and contribute to the PFM Map. Your submission will entitle you to sneak peeks of the Map before it goes public.
Add your data to the PFM map