Hubbub’s public polling found a staggering 86% of people think littering is a disgusting habit. Meanwhile local authorities are trying to make ever dwindling amounts of money go further in cleaning up UK streets.
Last year we tried something new: a six month long social experiment in Villiers Street, one of the busiest in London. We brought the world’s latest in litter interventions to Westminster to see if Fun Theory could nudge people to do the right thing with their rubbish.
Villiers Street is vibrant but has a virulent litter problem, having to be cleaned seven times a day. Two thirds of people drop litter at night and more than half during the day, if you include dropped cigarette butts. For waste teams, one of the hardest items of litter to clean but least socially stigmatised is the butt.
JOLT THE CIGARETTE MINDSET
The tiny butt presents a big problem. One third of cigarette butts find their way into the ground or waterways. That’s 1.69 billion pounds of butt clogging up our natural environments and ecosystems. The filters they contain are made of a type of plastic that degrades very slowly and is toxic to wildlife.
That’s why we want to change both actions and attitudes towards dropping the sickly cylinders: Enter the Ballot Bin.
These bright bins went viral on their first trial by asking smokers engaging questions such as ‘Messi or Ronaldo?’ The bin reached six million people online and reduced the rate of smokers dropping their butts by 20 per cent.
HOW DOES THE BALLOT BIN WORK?
Created in collaboration with Common Works design agency, the bin taps into peoples’ desire to participate through the polling mechanism – cast your vote and watch the ‘ballots’ pile up through the glass.
The customisable question panel sparks conversation, interacts with users and taps into trending topics. Interacting with the bin and other people provides positive reinforcement for disposing of butts in a sustainable way. What we’ve seen on social media is that smokers WANT to use the Ballot Bin!
The bin holds up to 600 butts, which can be collected and sent to TerraCycle for their free cigarette butt recycling programme. All the waste collected will be recycled into a range of plastic products with remaining tobacco or paper will be recycled as compost – nothing will go to landfill.
THROW LITTER INTO QUESTION
We have found that the Ballot Bin opens up a wider discussion about cigarette butt waste and litter in general. Since the original Neat Streets experiment on Westminster’s Villiers Street, we have been busy collaborating with councils in Edinburgh, Sutton and the Forest of Dean on other anti-littering campaigns, each targeting local issues but all benefitting from the Ballot Bin. Ashfield, Bedford, Swale and Cornwall have also received Bins to bring an end to dropped fag ends.
For more info, please see www.ballotbin.co.uk.
