With an estimated 1 million cigarette butts tossed on the streets and public spaces of Vancouver each day, the city is looking at new ways of encouraging smokers to properly dispose of their burnt garbage.
So they're trying a vote.
The idea started in Europe and it's fairly simple. Use a butt ballot box to engage with smokers.
"It's part of our overall strategy to help reduce litter," says the city's manager of solid waste programs Jonathan McDermott. "It's one of the tools we're testing out to see if it reduces cigarette butt litter."
So far there's just one butt ballot pilot, at Bute and Davie where a pop-up plaza has been set up.
The device itself is also simple. It's essentially a metal box with two transparent panes. Smokers can vote with their butts for one of two answers; right now it's whether or not cigarette butts are litter, and while the obvious answer is winning, it is oddly not a complete victory, with a few naysayers butting in to go with 'No.'
McDermott says that's actually not an uncommon perception among smokers, which is why millions of the little plastic filters end up on the ground each year. However, each butt can take 25 years to decompose, and they can carry toxins into the water system, especially when they wash down storm drains.
But in either case, the goal of the ballot box is working so long as it collects lots of votes.
"It's trying to encourage more use of a cigarette butt receptacle," McDermott says. Future questions might be more fun and engaging, he notes. In Europe a popular vote was Christian Ronaldo vs. Lionel Messi.
While cigarette butts are small, McDermott notes that they're the most common type of litter on the streets, hence the search for better ways to collect them and get them into the trash system.
The city isn't on its own in this case, they're working with the West End BIA to monitor the voting, which started in July. McDermott says the city wanted to get their feet wet with this one before developing the program further.
"We're really just going to play it by ear, if we feel it's going well we'll look to expand," he says.
While the litter aspect of the ballot box is the main thrust of the program, McDermott notes there's also a QR code on the box which takes people to a site for those looking to quit. He adds that there's also a public safety aspect as cigarette butts occasionally lead to fires.
