Edinburgh Council Set To Clean Up The Streets

Edinburgh council litter campaign has been commented on by actors, Ewan McGregor and Johnny Lee Miller.

Shockingly cigarette butt litter costs Edinburgh’s city centre £2.4 million a year to clean up. In an attempt to keep the streets free of cigarette butt litter, The City of Edinburgh Council decided to trial the Ballot Bin, a new voting ashtray that lets members of the public vote on issues that matter to them. After a successful pilot the council has now installed 20 of the bins around the city.

One of the challenges in Edinburgh is cigarette ends, says Councillor Lesley Hinds, Environment Convener for the City of Edinburgh Council. She said: “Some smokers don’t seem to think of cigarette ends as litter and that it’s OK to dispose of them by simply dumping them on the street. Cigarette litter is as unsightly as any other litter and is particularly difficult to remove form Edinburgh’s cobbled streets where the butts get stuck between the stones.

Cigarette litter is as unsightly as any other litter and is particularly difficult to remove form Edinburgh’s cobbled streets

 

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First featured in the Neat Streets campaign run by environmental charity Hubbub, the Ballot Bin aims to jolt people out of their normal littering routine by asking fun questions that smokers have an opinion on. The Ballot Bin project has proved very successful as it’s a great example of using innovative ways of challenging people, who previously may have dumped their cigarette ends on the street, to dispose of them in one of the bins spread across the city centre, says Councillor Lesley hinds.

When Edinburgh City Council asked ‘Who’s your favourite Trainspotting character? Begbie or Renton’, Ewan McGregor himself responded by uploading a picture of the bin onto Instagram and Twitter. Jonny Lee Miller then responded creating an online debate between the two. Together these messages received almost 33k likes and almost 500 retweets.

Edinburgh City Council is one of many UK councils introducing the Ballot Bin, and the first to scale the project. Organisations in other countries are also impressed by the Ballot Bin. Since launching in April, over 50% Ballot Bin sales are to countries overseas, with customers in the USA, France, Spain and Japan.

More information and inspiration on keeping your streets litter free can be found on https://ballotbin.co.uk and http://neatstreets.co/