University of Portsmouth Alumni Magazine 1 1 | Page 4

A POCKET SIZED
SOLUTION TO
PLASTIC POLLUTION
Plastic pollution is a crisis
born of carelessness. But
imagine if there was a way
for absolutely anyone to
help tackle the problem of plastic waste
- with a solution that fits in your pocket.
Portsmouth alum Louis Capitanchik
BSc (Hons) ’16 imagined exactly
that. And now he’s made it happen.
Louis is the co-founder and
technical lead at Portsmouth-based
start-up Jetsam Tech, where he
built the social plastics logging
app, Jetsam. He explains the idea:
‘Jetsam engages the local community in
citizen science, to empower people to
go out into their own communities and
catalogue any plastic waste that they
see out and about, to give us data that
we can then use and provide to other
organisations to help clean-up efforts
and targeted environmental initiatives.
So we’ll hopefully reduce a lot of the
plastic that you see, as a way of people
engaging with a problem that I think
a lot are aware of but don’t have any
idea of how they can personally tackle.’
Anyone with a smart mobile device can
download the Jetsam app. At the time
of writing it is available from UK app
stores, with more countries coming
soon, as it can be used globally. Once
downloaded, it’s free and easy to
use. Simply open the app and take
a picture of whatever plastic you
encounter while out and about. If your
geolocation is enabled, the location
will be identified, enabling Louis and
his business partner Steve Bomford
to build up a map of plastic hotspots.
Jetsam launched in February 2020
and Louis says the response has been
‘amazing’. Within two months, Jetsam
had hundreds of users in Portsmouth,
with downloads as far afield as
Northern Ireland. Organisations are
also showing an interest - which
is key to Louis’ plan to ‘work with
local community organisations,
councils, private companies, to help
them understand the problems.’
Louis has always been passionate