Ban the Cigarette butts

Long description

More than 5 trillion cigarette butts end up as waste yearly, and 75% of smokers still flick their butt on the ground. The filters end up on the street, in our soil, in sewers and eventually our oceans. These plastic filters are made of cellulose acetate, which takes more than 15 years to break down, and before that end up as microplastics in our eco system. Cigarette filters are the last ACCEPTABLE behaviour of littering. And this needs to change! Also for festival, the filters are a pain in the butt. Event organisers spend on average between 10 and 70k to clean up natural and urban festival areas afterwards. But the real question is, why is butt littering still happening? How can we nudge smokers towards disposing their butt sustainable? The first step is to facilitate and inform them, but there are still no effective and sustainable solutions to this smelly issue. We want to design and test prototypes that collect butts, or even maybe disintegrates the plastic bugger. Either way, it should persuade smokers to stop flicking their butt, so our oceans, streets, and beaches become clean. We are an university that cooperates with national and international partners, both in the industry and academic field of leisure, tourism, events and hospitality. We push students forward to innovate and stand for a just and circular future. The design challenges, prototyping and testing will be organised by students, supported by professionals and expert. Because change starts with setting the example!

Additional Images