Baltic Sea Ashtray pilot
The Baltic Sea Ashtray aims to combat the most common form of waste on the beaches of Warnemünde, Germany: cigarette butts. This pilot project organised by the Küsten Union Deutschland e.V. (Coastal Union Germany) and the Rostock and Warnemünde Tourist Office encourages smokers to dispose of their cigarettes in dedicated bins by giving them the chance to “vote” on a topical question such as “Which soccer team plays better?”.
With one windowed container for each answer, public opinion is captured as the number of discarded butts increases. The questions are changed regularly and the public can even submit their suggestions online on the marine waste portal.
In the city of Neustadt, on the Baltic coast, the tourism service and the city marketing department were also given six of these ballot bins for beaches and the city centre. In addition, 15,000 portable beach ashtrays were distributed to visitors by the beach guard and the DLRG life-saving association in the 2019 season.
