UvA Students clean up cigarette butts at REC
Today, students picked up cigarette butts in the smoke-free zone of REC, at the corner near Lebkov. The initiative was an experiment for the elective course Changemaking in Future Planet Studies. “With this experiment, we wanted to show that others can take responsibility, even without direct rewards.”
Despite the UvA’s initiatives for smoke-free zones, Future Planet Studies students Karlijn Tavenier (23) and Mees Preijde (23) observe that a lot of smoking still occurs on campus. “Just look at the entrance of building J/K or at the corner near Lebkov, and you’ll see students having a cigarette.” Due to the lack of ashtrays on campus, the students noticed that most cigarette butts end up on the ground. They started an experiment to investigate how willing students are to keep their campus clean.
Worldwide
The experiment is part of the Changemaking course the students are attending. Within this elective, Tavenier and Preijde are collaborating with the organisation Surf the City on a project aimed at creating a greener and cleaner campus. They quickly encountered the issue of cigarette butts. “Cigarette butts are the most littered form of waste worldwide. They contain plastic and heavy metals, making them harmful to the environment. It takes at least ten years for them to decompose,” says Preijde.
The students discovered that there are no ashtrays on campus because it must be smoke-free, and the absence of ashtrays was intended to discourage students from smoking. “This morning, we heard from someone from Facility Services that the municipality also refuses to place bins on the piece of public land where many students smoke, at Roetersstraat.” Therefore, Preijde and Tavenier devised a playful experiment using litter pickers to see how willing students are to keep their campus clean.
Five Butts
“We ask passers-by to pick up five cigarette butts,” says Preijde. “That lowers the threshold. So far, it has resulted in positive and engaging reactions, but there are also people who refuse to participate unless they are paid, or they say: ‘I don’t smoke, so I don’t need to clean up.’”
Although this is a one-off event, Tavenier and Preijde believe it would be a good idea to do this more often. Tavenier states, “Look at how much we’ve cleaned up. It wouldn’t be a bad idea if the UvA turned our experiment into something more structural. Ultimately, we believe it’s the responsibility of smoking students to keep it somewhat clean. Just walk a few metres to a proper bin, stub out your cigarette properly, and dispose of it. Take that responsibility.”
What the students plan to do after the experiment is still unclear. “The Changemaking course has only just begun. Tomorrow, we will present the results in class,” says Preijde.
