To put a cigarette in or not? Special ashtray in Paderborn city centre

Paderborner. The Paderborn Waste Disposal and City Cleaning Company (ASP) would like to intensify its efforts to clean the city once again. In the run-up to the World Cleanup Days 2024, so-called voting cups were installed at various locations in Paderborn, as the city of Paderborn announced. These special waste containers for cigarette butts are intended to encourage smokers not to carelessly dispose of their cigarette butts in the environment, but to throw them in the container provided for this purpose.

Cigarette butts are the most improperly disposed waste in terms of quantity. In Paderborn alone, conservative estimates suggest that more than 50 million cigarette butts end up on the ground every year and not in the general waste.

The initiative is part of a comprehensive commitment by the ASP, which also includes support for World Cleanup Day 2024. World Cleanup Day, which takes place every year on September 20th, is a worldwide campaign that calls on people to get involved in eliminating environmental pollution. On this day, the ASP will support all volunteers who collect litter in the Paderborn urban area.

There are several activities in Paderborn

As in the previous year, the ASP will be represented by one employee at the main event in Paderborn on Saturday, September 21st. As part of the collection campaign, which begins and ends at the Multicult youth center between 12 and 2 p.m., the ASP has announced a cigarette butt rally. The person or group that collects the most cigarette butts during this time will receive a prize. The Paderborn Canoe Club and the “Skate for Waste” initiative will also be holding campaigns on Saturday.

“We would like to see lots of volunteers come to the meeting point at Multicult next to the Paderhalle on Saturday at 12 noon and help,” said Emerson da Silva, who organized the Paderborn World CleanUp Day for the second year in a row. Volunteers are also invited to register with the ASP or on the official World Cleanup Day website and initiate garbage collection walks in their neighborhood.

The voting cups are intended to draw attention to the rubbish that is most often found during collection walks. They were hung up along Westernstrasse and Kamp on Tuesday. The special feature: the voting cups offer users the opportunity to vote by throwing in their smoked cigarette.

Environmental awareness is to be strengthened in Paderborn through play

The question posed on the ashtray can vary and often relates to current topics or humorous polls. In this way, throwing away cigarette butts becomes a conscious act that also makes a positive contribution to keeping the city clean.

“With the voting cups, we want to raise awareness of the problem of cigarette waste in a creative way.” “Every cigarette butt that ends up in one of these ashtrays is a small step towards a cleaner and more livable city,” explains Jan Grunau, circular economy consultant at ASP.

The ASP Paderborn invites all citizens to take part in the planned activities for World Cleanup Day and to use the new voting cups. More detailed information about the activities can be found on social media and the city’s website.