AI Camera to Catch East Riding Litter Droppers

A CCTV camera using AI technology is now being trialled in a bid to combat litter thrown carelessly on grass verges in the East Riding.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council has launched a pilot scheme with the firm LitterCam to install a high-tech camera to record drivers who dump their rubbish on the roadside. 

The aim of the trial is to try to prevent motorists from discarding their rubbish irresponsibly – waste such as fast-food packaging, drinks cups, cans, bottles and cigarette butts – and encourage them to take their rubbish home instead. 

The council's head of Highway Maintenance, Bill Manby, says there is a significant cost to littering in the East Riding.

"we're installing a new AI litter camera, to look at keeping our verges clear from litter.

Littering costs a council in the region of about 4.3 million pounds a year.

It's important once, once these trials come forward there's an opportunity to try and find a better way of approaching how we clear the litter from our verges.

Want to discourage motorists from depositing litter on the verges and actually taking the litter home with them.

That's why these kind of trials are really important."

The pilot scheme will run for 12 weeks. A camera has been placed near to the Willerby roundabout on the A164 road as it is a high traffic location with several fast-food outlets nearby. 

The camera system, which was the first of its kind in the UK, uses AI software to automatically detect numberplates and record any rubbish that gets dumped from those vehicles. 

That information will be relayed to the council’s streetscene enforcement officers who will analyse the footage to see if any offences have been committed. 

Bill says It is the intention to issue warning letters to those offenders during this trial, rather than fixed penalties.

"It can automatically detect litter being thrown from vehicles, capture the number plate. So that'll give us an opportunity then to go and find out whether there's a prosecution there available.

We're gonna run it for 12 weeks, and , if we do find motors that are depositing litter onto the highway, we're gonna send them a warning letter first. We want to educate people. We want 'em to stop from throwing litter onto the verge. We want 'em to , dispose of it properly.

It'll detect the number plate from the vehicle and it'll be able to detect different types of rubbish that's being deposited from the vehicle. So it'll be able to tell you whether it's a cup or if it's a packet, or whether it's a cigarette book. That'll give us a lot more information about how we proceed from that.

And after the 12 weeks, we'll be able to see whether we can then start and target hotspots and really make a difference across East Riding."

The main aim of the scheme is to gather information. 

If the trial proves successful, the council would look at a longer-term partnership with the firm with the possibility of installing more cameras in other litter hotspots in the East Riding. 

LitterCam is a Wakefield-based company and has previously been involved in trials by other authorities, including in London, Manchester, Scotland, the Netherlands and in Saudi Arabia, and most recently in Loughborough where 28 fines of £150 were issued and verge litter was reduced by 40% as a result of the camera system. 

 Andrew Kemp, co-founder and CEO of LitterCam, said:

“We are delighted to be working with East Riding of Yorkshire Council, supporting them in tackling the blight of litter and through the trialling of innovate AI technology.” 

Andrew says the camera's software is trained to spot littering offences:

"We've developed some software that's trained to detect the action of littering from vehicles. So if members of the public do decide to to drop litter, we can automatically detect that footage and instead of people having to manually look at CCTV screens, we can just put the footage of interest in their hands.

We train the software to detect the, the action of litter. So the arc and the path of the litter leaving a vehicle we're then looking to pair up the registration mark of the vehicle with the littering offence so that the enforcement officers have got what they need to issue an enforcement notice."

Councillor Lyn Healing, the council’s cabinet member for communities and public protection, said:

“We are committed to tackling litter in the East Riding and embracing the use of modern technology is a key element of our strategy. 

“Littering is against the law and keeping our streets clean – including our roadsides – costs the council around £4m per year. 

“This trial partnership with LitterCam will allow us to better understand how AI can be used in the fight against litter.”