Crows are trained to pick up rubbish in Sweden
Crows are absolutely brilliant birds. Believe me, I saw an episode of Nature on PBS about them once, so I’m definitely an expert. Because the birds are so smart, The guard reports that the Swedish cleaning company Corvid Cleaning teaches new Caledonian crows how to pick up rubbish, more specifically cigarette butts, in exchange for delicious treats. The program aims to save money on human labor to take things off the streets.
Corvid Cleaning is based in Södertälje, a city near Stockholm. The birds are wild, which means that they are not bred for this purpose. New Caledonians are the perfect bird for the job, as they are known for their intellect and reasoning.
“They are wild birds that participate on a voluntary basis,” says Christian Günther-Hanssen, founder of Corvid Cleaning.
The city of Södertälje spends a lot of money on cleaning its streets: it costs 1.6 million Swedish kronor annually, which is equivalent to just over 175,000 dollars. The Keep Sweden Clean foundation says that over a billion cigarette butts are thrown on the streets of Sweden every year, which corresponds to 62% of the country’s total rubbish. Günther-Hanssen estimates that his company could potentially save at least 75% of the cleaning costs for cigarette butts in Södertälje by using the trained crows.
Södertälje is not ready to hire the birds yet; There will be a pilot program before any crows are actually used for spreading service. If you are worried about the crows’ collective health, do not worry – this is an important issue for the whole project.
About New Caledonian crows, Günther-Hanssen says: “They are easier to teach and there is also a greater chance that they learn from each other. At the same time, the risk is lower that they accidentally eat rubbish.”
Daily Mail reports that the crows take the rubbish to a special vending machine that recognizes the cigarette butts and then some food is handed out as a reward. Sounds a bit like giving your friends pizza and beer to help move your stuff.
But of course it’s about money. Tomas Thernström is a waste strategist at Södertälje municipality and he took up a good point.
– It would be interesting to see if this could work in other environments as well, Thernström said. Also from the perspective that we can teach crows to pick up cigarette butts, but we can not teach people not to throw them on the ground. That’s an interesting thought. ”
I would ask if it is really that difficult for people to throw cigarette butts in some kind of dustbin, but I already know the answer. I’ve seen lots of them on the streets of Chicago. I’ve even seen someone empty what looked like a whole bucket of cigarette butts on the street while he was waiting in his car at a traffic light. Crows, you may be our only hope. Godspeed, small.