Together we're picking up a million cigarette butts and setting the tone for a cleaner and healthier environment!
National Clean-up Campaign May 9th to 23rd: will you join us?
How to particpate
Pick up cigarette butts on your own or together with your family, friends, or colleagues. You can free, for example, your neighbourhood, a park, the edge of a forest, a sports field or the bank of a lake of cigarette butts.
In the city, two people pick up on average 500 cigarette butts in an hour; in the countryside far fewer. How many can you pick up? Every cigarette butt counts!
What you need
For your protection, please use:
- Gloves
- A mini-gripper (a clothes peg works really well)
- PET bottle(s) with lid(s)
Don’t forget to wash and disinfect your hands and the mini-gripper thoroughly after you’re done.
Your safety is of highest priority!
Move only in places that are safe to move in.
Insurance is the responsibility of the participants.
What to do with the cigarette butts
Please count the stubs and fill them airtight into PET bottles (1.5 litres) and send them to the following address:
stop2drop
Kirchbergstrasse 105
Rampe 2
3400 Burgdorf
Write on the bottle or on a piece of paper:
- The number of cigarette butts collected
- Postcode and town
- The canton
Additionally write on an adjoining piece of paper:
- Your contact details: please include a contact address and email address so that we can send you the results around mid-June.
- Who took part in the clean-up?
- Your feedback: What was your Aha! moment (what was particularly positive, difficult, surprising, shocking)?
Why send waste by post?
On June 6th, we will present the results of our Clean-up Campaign. For this, we need as many cigarette butts as possible in one place. This is the best way to draw the whole country’s attention to the environmental problems caused by cigarettes.
Please make sure to send in your collected cigarette butts by May 26th 2023.
If you aren’t able to send the collected cigarette butts by post, then please send us a picture of your PET bottle(s), number of collected cigarette butts, town, and canton via WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram or Threema to +41 79 331 84 47
Counting help
A full 1.5 litre PET bottle contains on average 500 cigarette butts.
What to pick up:
Cigarette butts
Cigarette butts are tiny, toxic time bombs. They are made of plastic and eventually break down into harmful microplastics. They contain over 7000 toxic substances that end up in our waters. They harm our environment and nature.
Snus
Snus packets contain a lot of the neurotoxin nicotine and various other chemicals. They harm the environment.
Vapes
Electronic cigarettes contain a variety of chemicals, such as the neurotoxin nicotine. The casing is made of plastic, the device contains electronics as well as a lithium battery! They shouldn’t be disposed of in nature or even regular household waste. Thank you for picking them up and sending (or photographing) them to us, together with your PET bottle(s) but in a separate container. Please do not seal them in with the cigarette butts and snus packets.
Every cigarette butt counts!
Together let's set the tone for a cleaner environment!
Let's go!
mini flyer:
People might approach you on the street to ask what you are doing. We’ve prepared a mini flyer for you to hand out that you can print at home.
stop2drop poster
Would you like to draw attention to the serious environmental damage caused by cigarette litter? We’ve prepared an informative stop2drop poster, which you can print at home.
donate
Help us raise us awareness about the environmental damage caused by cigarette litter: Support our work with a donation and help set the tone for a clean and healthy environment!
In collaboration with: