Photo: MENNOSHAEFFER/Depositphotos
It's no secret that crows are smart. Like other members of the family Ravenidae, crows live in communities known as habitats and are known for foraging. Researchers are fascinated by birds — and even found that they can understand the concept of zero. Christian Günther-Hanssen, the founder of Corvid Cleaning, is using the wisdom of this bird to save money for his city. He invented a way to train crows to pick up cigarette butts and other garbage.
Garbage removal is a huge municipal expense. The Swedish city of Södertälje spends SEK 20 million a year on street cleaning. At least 62% of these debris are cigarette butts. Günther-Hanssen created a machine that rewards local wild New Caledonian crows for each cigarette butt that is removed from the streets and put into a special trash can. These smart birds are just as "smart" as 7-year-old humans. They can train through a reward system and can even learn cleaning behaviors from each other.
These feathered volunteers may save about 75% of the costs associated with cigarette waste. A trial is currently underway to evaluate the efficacy of Corvid Cleaning's ingenious new ideas. It is important to assess whether crows eat cigarette butts accidentally (or intentionally) as this can have a negative impact on their health. Financing is also pending. However, corvid cleaners are a new way to tackle the old problem of municipal waste.
Tomas Thernström, waste strategist in the city of Södertälje, said: "It will be interesting to see if this also applies to other environments. Also from the point of view that we can teach crows to pick up cigarette butts but we can't teach people not to throw them on the ground. This is an interesting idea. In the meantime, we can all be as calm as crows, picking up trash wherever we see it.
A Swedish company is using clever crows to pick up trash and cigarette butts from city streets.
South Telier, Sweden. (Photo: PHOTONEN/Depositphotos)