Ballot bins – make it fun to use bins

LITTERING is often an unconscious act. The best campaigns make people stop, and think.

In Edinburgh and London, Hubbub installed double slot ‘ballot’ bins for general waste and cigarette butts.

The bins gave people the chance to vote with their rubbish.

Light-hearted questions kept them engaged. Messi or Ronaldo? Begbie or Renton? Batman or Superman? Just pop your litter in the slot to register your vote.

The Edinburgh campaign enjoyed a lot of exposure – four out of five people interviewed associated the campaign with litter.

And 90 per cent of business owners and workers in the area were aware of it.

In London, the campaign focused on one busy street.

Here’s what they found:

Cigarette butt littering reduced by 8 per cent during the campaign, at one point dipping by 18per cent.

Ballot bins collected 29% of a street’s correctly disposed-of waste; and

Voting-by-bin went viral on social media.

The campaign buzz drew 80 enquiries asking to use ballot bins in other areas.

Why does it work?

Most bins are designed to blend in.

The ballot bins work because they stand out – thanks to brightly coloured wraps. More than that, the campaign achieved something that’s hard to do: make it fun to use bins.