Swedish Company Recruits Crows to Catch Cigarette Butts

A carrion crow in flight. Arterra/Universal Images Group, via
Getty Images
A carrion crow in flight. Arterra/Universal Images Group, via Getty Images
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Swedish Company Recruits Crows to Catch Cigarette Butts

A carrion crow in flight. Arterra/Universal Images Group, via
Getty Images
A carrion crow in flight. Arterra/Universal Images Group, via Getty Images

Crows are being recruited to pick up discarded cigarette butts from the streets and squares of a Swedish city as part of a cost-cutting drive, The Guardian reported.

The wild birds carry out the task as they receive a little food for every butt that they deposit in a bespoke machine designed by a startup in Södertälje, near Stockholm.

“They are wild birds taking part on a voluntary basis,” said Christian Günther-Hanssen, the founder of Corvid Cleaning, the company behind the method. The Keep Sweden Tidy Foundation says that more than 1bn cigarette butts are left on Sweden’s streets each year, representing 62 percent of all litter.

Södertälje spends 20m Swedish kronor (£1.6m) on street cleaning. Günther-Hanssen estimates his method could save at least 75 percent of costs involved with picking up cigarette butts in the city.

Södertälje is carrying out a pilot project before potentially rolling out the operation across the city. Clever crows use tools in same way as great apes and humans. New Caledonian crows, a member of the corvid family of birds, are as good at reasoning as a human seven-year-old, research has suggested, making them the smartest birds for the job.

“They are easier to teach and there is also a higher chance of them learning from each other. At the same time, there’s a lower risk of them mistakenly eating any rubbish,” Günther-Hanssen said.

The estimation for the cost of picking up cigarette butts today is around 80 öre (Swedish change) or more per cigarette butt, some say two kronor.

Tomas Thernström, a waste strategist at Södertälje municipality, said the potential of the pilot depended on financing.

“It would be interesting to see if this could work in other environments as well. Also, from the perspective that we can teach crows to pick up cigarette butts but we can’t teach people not to throw them on the ground. That’s an interesting thought,” he said.



China to Offer Childcare Subsidies in Bid to Boost Birth Rate 

People push baby strollers along a business street in Beijing on July 13, 2021. (AFP)
People push baby strollers along a business street in Beijing on July 13, 2021. (AFP)
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China to Offer Childcare Subsidies in Bid to Boost Birth Rate 

People push baby strollers along a business street in Beijing on July 13, 2021. (AFP)
People push baby strollers along a business street in Beijing on July 13, 2021. (AFP)

China's government will offer subsidies to parents to the tune of $500 per child under the age of three per year, Beijing's state media said Monday, as the world's second most populous nation faces a looming demographic crisis.

The country's population has declined for three consecutive years, with United Nations demography models predicting it could fall from 1.4 billion today to 800 million by 2100.

The nationwide subsidies apply retroactively from January 1, Beijing's state broadcaster CCTV said, citing a decision by the ruling Communist Party and the State Council, China's cabinet.

"This is a major nationwide policy aimed at improving public wellbeing," CCTV said.

"It provides direct cash subsidies to families across the country, helping to reduce the burden of raising children," it added.

There were just 9.54 million births in China last year, half the number than in 2016, the year it ended its one-child policy, which was in place for more than three decades.

The population declined by 1.39 million last year, and China lost its crown as the world's most populous country to India in 2023.

Marriage rates are also at record low levels, in a country where many young couples have been put off having children by high child-rearing costs and career concerns.

Many local governments have already rolled out subsidies to encourage childbirth.

In March, Hohhot, the capital of China's northern Inner Mongolia region, began offering residents up to 100,000 yuan ($14,000) per newborn for couples with three or more children, while first and second children will be eligible for 10,000 and 50,000 yuan subsidies.

In Shenyang, in northeastern Liaoning province, local authorities give families who have a third child 500 yuan per month until the child turns three.

Hangzhou, in eastern Zhejiang province, offers a one-time payment of 25,000 yuan to couples who have a third child.

More than 20 provincial-level administrations in the country now offer childcare subsidies, according to official data.

Premier Li Qiang vowed to provide childcare subsidies during the government's annual work report in March.

The country's shrinking population is also ageing fast, which has sparked worries about the future of the country's pension system.

There were nearly 310 million aged 60 and over in 2024.