The Face of Litter

Not even anti-face-recognition camouflage strategies, such as these algorithm based make up styles will help you against DNA evidence.

In Hong Kong, an environmental campaign called The Face of Litter is tackling littering behavior in an innovative way. Collecting DNA samples from rubbish carelessly discarded on the street, they recreate the digital portrait of the person who dumped it.

Thanks to a combination of DNA technology, local demographical research and a little bit of artistic license, the team has been able to put a face to those anonymous litters.

To punishment for Hong Kong’s litterbugs is public humiliation: the resulting lineaments have been spread on posters across the city's transit ads, social media and print publications.

The initiative comes after a recent study that stresses the urgency of the marine debris problem, pointing the finger at China and Indonesia as the main guilty parties for more than a third of the trash washed out to sea. Furthermore, another report, released by the Hong Kong Government, stated that 95% of marine refuse in Hong Kong comes from local sources, with over 80% originating from land-based activities.

The Face of Litter project gets off a new - and hopefully effective - approach to waste management: trashing those who trash the planet. Do we really need to go that far to avoid littering?

Source: The Creators Project