Bradenton To Residents: Vote With Your Butts

BRADENTON, FL – Last week, the City of Bradenton installed several new receptacles in an effort to encourage smokers to put their butts in their place.

Bradenton was one of five cities across the country chosen to participate in Keep America Beautiful’s Cigarette Litter Prevention Program. The campaign, produced in partnership with Hubbub’s Neat Streets campaign, which looks to end cigarette butt litter in a creative and interactive way.

Hubbub’s Ballot Bins are an oversized ash receptacle that looks to tackle the issue of cigarette butt litter by encouraging use of the bin through a visually compelling, interactive message.

The box uses a “voting system,” which allows the user to vote on predetermined questions by choosing one of two slots to dispose of a cigarette butt. Each Ballot Bin features a window that displays the butts, allowing smokers to participate in a public opinion poll when they use the receptacle. Questions featured on the boxes are customizable and can be changed to reflect timely topics or local interests.

“Keep America Beautiful is in the business of behavior change and the team at Hubbub has demonstrated that the Ballot Bin offers an effective approach to reducing cigarette butt littering in the U.K. and beyond,” said Becky Lions, the chief operating officer of Keep America Beautiful. “Our network of 620-plus affiliates and other community partners, serving urban, suburban and rural communities, are a snapshot of America. We look forward to bringing the Ballot Bin to communities across the United States as we strive to build upon the success of our Cigarette Litter Prevention Program and advance our fight to end littering in America.”

Seven Ballot Bins were installed in Bradenton on Friday, July 14 in the following locations:

• West side of Blake Hospital, 21st Avenue near west storm drain
• Barcarotta Boulevard between 14th Street West and 15th Street West riverside near park bench break away post mount
• Light post No. 3, approximately 200 feet east of the Green bridge Riverwalk, mounted to the light post
• Butterfly Garden parking lot at Riverwalk, mounted to the light post
• Southernmost end of the pavilion at Rossi Park, mounted to the building
• East side of circular turf area at Rossi Park, mounted to the light post near the park bench
• Southeastern end of Riverwalk near bench and shade structure across from the Manatee Memorial on the breakaway post mount

Keep Manatee Beautiful is the local chapter of Keep America Beautiful that helped partnered with the pilot program in Bradenton. The other cities participating in the pilot program are Greenpoint, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Curb Your Litter); Manchester, Tenn. (Keep Coffee County Beautiful); Erie, Penn. (Keep Erie Beautiful); and Guntersville, Ala. (Keep Guntersville Beautiful).

The bins in each pilot market have been customized to the local communities’ interests. The questions on each bin will also be created with local interest in mind and will be swapped out each week for smokers to let their butts answer the questions.

Following its successful start in April 2016, Hubbub launched the Ballot Bin with a website and has since shipped their product to more than 14 countries and 100 locations. An independent study showed that the Ballot Bins achieved a 46 percent reduction of cigarette butt litter in the locations where bins were used in London.

“The voting bin is a simple solution that has provoked an incredibly positive response and got people talking about cigarette butt litter in a new way,” said Rebecca Dove, the managing director of Hubbub. “In less than a year, the Ballot Bin has reached 12 million people in the press and social media and been demonstrated to reduce cigarette butt litter by 46 percent. So we are delighted to be working in partnership with Keep America Beautiful to introduce the Ballot Bins to the U.S. and look forward to following this exciting pilot.”

Since it began, Keep America Beautiful’s Cigarette Litter Prevention Program has consistently cut cigarette butt litter by approximately half based on local measurements taken in the first four months to six months after the program was implemented.

Results from the 2016 program implementation saw a 62 percent reduction in cigarette litter. Survey results also demonstrated as communities continue to implement and monitor the program, the reductions are sustained or even increased over time.

Keep America Beautiful has distributed approximately $3.3 million in grant funding since 2006 to support local implementation of the program in more than 1,700 communities nationwide.

Image courtesy of Keep Manatee Beautiful