Empower Your Trek.
Clean The World.
Trek. Collect. Respect.
CleanTrek introduces the world’s first (patent pending) trekking pole attachments that turn your poles into litter cleanup tools.
The Trigger
clamps near the handle of your trekking pole, making it easy to push by hand. A cord connects the Trigger to the other components.
The Grabber
screws onto the bottom of your trekking pole. Push the Trigger to rotate the Grabber and pick up litter.
The Collector
clamps along the middle of your trekking pole. Push the Trigger to open and close the Collector to load in trash.
The Tongs Holder
can be used alongside your Collector, enabling a single-pole litter cleanup solution.
Put it all together
for a complete package that can be mixed and matched to best fit your hiking style!
Now available on Kickstarter!
For the first time ever, you can make your pledge on Kickstarter to get your own set of CleanTrek’s litter cleanup gear, while helping fund our first manufacturing run!
CleanTrek is a grassroots company, run independently by the inventor (me) John McShane. I'm eager to get these tools out into the world, and every Kickstarter pledge brings me one step closer!
Follow our journey.
Join the CleanTrek newsletter for monthly project updates — manufacturing status, design improvements, new litter cleanup products, and more!
Engage with CleanTrek on social media here:
ALSO you have a few extra minutes, you could really help me by joining the Interest List! This helps me measure demand and collect feedback from potential customers like you!
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See it in action.
This video demonstrates how CleanTrek’s litter cleanup gear works, and all of the product features!
Our first batch of products will be hitting the tails very soon! To join in on the launch and get your own CleanTrek gear, be sure to check out our Kickstarter page.
Data-Driven Impact
In 2020, a report estimated that 49.6 billion pieces of litter lined US roadways and waterways, with 88% measuring 4 inches or less. With 330 million US residents in 2020, each person would only have to pick up 152 pieces of litter to eliminate all of it.
Yosemite National Park gets about 4 million visitors per year. If each visitor filled up just one CleanTrek Collector (1.5 liters each), that would be enough litter to fill up 2 Olympic-size swimming pools. How long do you think it would take to pick all that up by yourself?
Every year, volunteers at Yosemite National Park participate in the Yosemite Facelift event. In 2023, 1,501 volunteers dedicated 12,151 hours across 5 days to remove a whopping 10,432 lbs of litter from the park. Astoundingly, this represents just 0.023% of the total hours spent by visitors at Yosemite that year. Imagine if just 1% of all visitors cleaned up litter while exploring the park—that'd be equivalent to 43 Facelift events!
Point is, we have strength in numbers! Imagine if you committed to grabbing just 1 out of every 100 pieces of litter you spot, knowing that the 99 hikers behind you will do the same. All of a sudden, your small action doesn't seem so small anymore.
Also, just think: litter accumulates gradually. One guy drops a candy wrapper. A gust of wind blows a napkin off a picnic table, etc. So shouldn't our approach to cleaning litter be gradual, too? Shouldn't we pick it up as early as possible, before it has a chance to blow off the trail? All we need to do is pick up litter more quickly than we create it, and with the right tools, I believe that's possible.
Sources:
[1] Keep America Beautiful. (2021, May). Keep America Beautiful 2020 National Litter Study Summary Report.
[2] Yosemite Climbing Association. (2023). Yosemite Facelift 20th Anniversary. (click here for info about Facelift events!)
[3] National Park Service. (2023). Monthly Public Use Report for Yosemite National Park.