Students Bags Glasgow's First £100 LitterLotto Prize

A Glasgow student is £100 richer after becoming the city council's first LitterLotto winner!

Anna-Maria Topouzi successfully turned trash into cash by bagging the first prize to be presented following the launch of the Glasgow LitterLotto app in November.

Anna was among the first to download the innovative new Glasgow version of the free app when it was launched at the end of last year and began using it to submit photos when she binned litter. This entered her into the council's monthly prize draw and she was thrilled to be announced as the city's first winner. The 26-year-old shopping enthusiast studies Finance and Economics at the University of Strathclyde and also works in a sports shop. She is now looking forward to treating herself to something nice on holiday with her winnings.

The city centre resident said: "Every day I use the LitterLotto app and I try to clean my area as well, when I see rubbish in the street.

"I will keep the prizemoney and spend it while on holiday in Greece where I come from."

LitterLotto aims to encourage more people to bin litter and reward those who already do so. To enter, people aged 18 and over must download the free LitterLotto app to their mobile and upload photos of themselves binning rubbish in a council street bin via the app's camera function. Each month, a prize draw will see one lucky person chosen at random win the cash prize.

People can enter as many times as they like, as long as it's different litter each time being deposited into a Glasgow City Council street bin. Putting rubbish in household waste doesn't count! Leaving litter beside or on top of a bin does not qualified and if a bin is full, please find another nearby. If a blue recycling street bin is close by, please use it for anything recyclable.

Glasgow City Council is trialling LitterLotto for a year, in partnership with Keep Scotland Beautiful, to encourage more people to develop good habits. 

As well as the monthly Glasgow cash prize, entrants will also be entered into a national draw for KSB's monthly £200 LitterLotto prize and LitterLotto's weekly £1000 UK-wide prize. Anyone aged 18 and over can enter if they bin a piece of litter in the city or submit a photo during an organised litter pick. The winners are chosen at random by LitterLotto. Participants can also collect virtual coins which are hidden in locations around the city and can be exchanged for prizes within the app.

The new initiative saw people bin over 15,000 pieces of litter in Glasgow and record it via the app between Nov 15th and 31st last year.

The city's first delighted winner encouraged other people to download the app and submit photos when they bin rubbish, to help protect the environment and prevent litter being dropped on our streets.

Anna said: "Just do it!  Download the app and start using it straight away. Please try and keep Glasgow clean and you never know, maybe you will be one of the winners."

Councillor Ruairi Kelly, Glasgow's Convener for Neighbourhood Services, congratulated Anna on her win and urged people to use the app.

He said: "Well done to Anna on winning Glasgow's first monthly LitterLotto prize. I hope she has a great time spending her winnings when she goes on holiday!

"LitterLotto is an innovative approach to tackling littering - incentivising more people to develop good habits, rewarding people who do the right thing and helping to reduce the amount of rubbish being dropped in the city."

Full details of how to join Glasgow's LitterLotto can be found at www.glasgow.gov.uk/litterlotto

Download the free LitterLotto app from the App store and Google Play to participate and be in with a chance of turning trash into cash.