Rubbish founders and friends Emin and Elena were super psyched to be a part of the prestigious Y Combinator Startup School program, which provides mentorship and support for select, high-potential entrepreneurs and startups. They were curious, though, to consider the impact of hundreds of entrepreneurs on the campus and neighborhood…what did their litter footprint look like?

After a lecture at the program’s YC Campus in Mountain View, they were inspired to do a rubbish cleanup to see what litter footprint was left in the classroom and on campus after the hundreds of entrepreneurs went home that day. Their goal was to collect the data with the rubbish app, show the incubator program what insights and action can result from the data, and make some simple suggestions on how the organizers can address litter on campus. Emin and Elena were also curious to compare the analytics from this cleanup with their pilot program on Polk Street in San Francisco.

After starting in the lecture hall, where they found 10 pieces of litter, they continued their cleanup on the two surrounding streets and found the following…

While overall they were super impressed with the litter footprint from the entrepreneurs, there’s more each of us can do to prevent and tackle litter. Ironically, Emin and Elena realized that they, too, left their mark–or “footprint”– on campus. Their footprint left behind was a cleaner campus and recommendations to keep it that way. We hope others follow their footprints to maintain this cleaner, more beautiful, entrepreneurial community!