Computer Science

In 2024, approximately 332 million people traveled some distance, whether it was a couple of minutes down the road, across multiple states, or from out of the country, with a common goal in mind: to see the breathtaking and iconic sites that we have designated as National Parks (National Park Service, 2025). In the United States, there are 63 of these official National Parks and over 400 other sites managed by the National Park Service (Chernikoff & Chen, 2024). Over 100 million pounds of garbage are generated by the hundreds of millions of visitors each year, which poses a significant threat to the National Parks themselves and the surrounding communities if not handled properly (Lawhon et al., 2018). Not only does wildlife suffer, but an individual’s experience is negatively impacted by this waste (Lawhon et al., 2018).

Across the globe, waste is a significant issue, contributing to global warming and increased natural disasters, as well as directly harming the health of animals through toxic chemicals like microplastics (Earthday.org, 2025). It is possible to reduce waste overall with techniques like reusing and recycling materials; however, these mainly limit the amount of waste in the environment in future years and do not account for the trash that is already out there. It is equally necessary to clean up the spaces that have waste actively causing damage. National Parks, in particular, are some of the rare preserved and protected natural areas left that are home to thousands of wildlife species and deserve to continue to thrive for years to come (National Park Service, n.d.). This way, both future people and wildlife can enjoy these spaces just as much as those that came before them.

A potential solution for waste reduction in National Parks is an application that targets park visitors, including but not limited to solo travelers, couples, and entire families. A study done by the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics aimed to understand the motivations behind proper waste disposal and how National Park visitors view waste practices across the board (Lawhon et al., 2018). The study found that park-goers were likely and willing to dispose of their waste in the appropriate receptacles when provided, including sorting landfill items from recyclables; however, much of the waste generated within the park was non-recyclable plastic, which is an issue in and of itself (Lawhon et al., 2018). Visitors that sought out information themselves or saw signage within the park were more likely to properly dispose of their waste as well, which provides good evidence that informational material targeting park visitors from all backgrounds is helpful and needed (Lawhon et al., 2018).

Lush is an app for those who wish to be environmentally conscious while traveling along with government agencies. The primary features of the app will be a map and a leaderboard. The map will use the location of the individual and will show pins. These pins represent areas of litter that need to be cleaned up. If a user cleans up these areas, they will be able to click on the pin to remove it. The pins will be color-coded depending on how much trash there is. The user will earn points for cleaning up the trash, and more points will be awarded for those areas where there is more trash. There will be another subpage where the user can also report trash they see. They will also earn points for reporting, but it will be significantly less than for cleaning up trash. These points will then correspond to the leaderboard. The leaderboard will be a page that is accessible from the home screen and will display the top three in the country, along with showing the user where they stand. At the end of every month, the top three on the leaderboard earn a star. If a user earns three stars, they are eligible for a prize.

Lush requires two main pieces of information to function: a map and information about the user, primarily their username and location. The app will require a map as the trash reporting and clean-up depends on the map for the user to be able to see locations. It also requires the user’s location in order to adapt the map to show areas near them and also ensure that they can only remove a pin if they are actually there. It requires their username simply to display on the leaderboard and this username will be connected to their account.

The map will be developed using a free version of the Google Maps API. Since we are targeting National Parks as part of our minimum viable product (MVP), we will also reference national park websites for maps of each individual park. We will need two main pieces of information from the user: location and username. When first creating an account, the user will be asked to input a username, other basic information (such as a password), and if they want to share their location. If the user says yes, the app will start recording their information. If the user says no, every time they want to report trash, they will need to enter all the information about their location, and every time they want to pick up trash, they will need to momentarily allow for location access.