4 ms·

I found the costs interesting: "The estimation for the cost of picking up cigarette butts today is around 80 öre or more per cigarette butt, some say 2 kronor."

I found the costs interesting: "The estimation for the cost of picking up cigarette butts today is around 80 öre or more per cigarette butt, some say 2 kronor." A Krona is about a US dime, so that's saying it's somewhere between 8 and 20 cents currently per butt. Call it ten cents. Then you'd need to collect a hundred butts to make ten dollars. The majority of humans on Earth would jump at that chance (assuming sufficient density of butts).

sveme 5y ago
Maybe some deposit scheme would work. Two euros per package of cigarettes, get them back if you return your 20 cigarette butts. Bit disgusting, but I really despise all the cigarette butts even at the wildest locations.
bayesian_horse 5y ago
Hard to find 100 buds in an hour. You'd need to house, feed etc the workers at first-world standards (or pay them enough) which makes up the current costs. Anything else is basically slave labor.
- thanatos519 5y ago
  USA: Hold my beer.
Someone 5y ago
I expect that number is computed from the local hourly minimum wage, dividing it by the number of butts one can pick up in an hour. That indeed would be a good income for billions, if they wouldn’t have to live in Sweden to do the job. Startup idea: small drones for picking up trash, operated remotely by humans living in some poor country.
- Jeff_Brown 5y ago
  I love the drone idea. If the median per capita income is still what it was in 2013[1], $1.5 / hr would beat it. [1] https://news.gallup.com/poll/166211/worldwide-median-household-income-000.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/166211/worldwide-median-househo...
- kwhitefoot 5y ago
  There is no legally defined minimum wage in Scandinavia. There are agreements between unions and employer organizations for the pay for classes of work. At least that's how it works here (Norway).
alkonaut 5y ago
If that cost is the cost of an employer then the cost is at least twice the pay the person doing the work would get. E.g. to run an operation where someone is paid $10/h your cost is likely $20/h including insurance/clothes/transport and other overheads for the employer (Payroll taxes alone are usually around 50% on top of the hourly pay). So if the cost is a dime then a cigarette butt picker might make 5c which isn't as great. It's 200 butts/h for minimum wages.
lillecarl 5y ago
I wonder where that number comes from, we clean our streets with vehicles these days whether there are cigarette butts there or not.
- Jeff_Brown 5y ago
  Streets are relatively easy to clean. I'm imagining the crows cleaning up the dirt under bushes, half-open drainpipes, etc.
jopsen 5y ago
The number is also interesting because one could simply apply a littering tax. Kind of how there (still) is a tax on empty CD media...
ekanes 5y ago
Sort of! Depends on where you live - it might not be much in Sweden.

sveme 5y ago

Maybe some deposit scheme would work. Two euros per package of cigarettes, get them back if you return your 20 cigarette butts. Bit disgusting, but I really despise all the cigarette butts even at the wildest locations.

bayesian_horse 5y ago

Hard to find 100 buds in an hour. You'd need to house, feed etc the workers at first-world standards (or pay them enough) which makes up the current costs. Anything else is basically slave labor.

thanatos519 5y ago
USA: Hold my beer.

Someone 5y ago

I expect that number is computed from the local hourly minimum wage, dividing it by the number of butts one can pick up in an hour. That indeed would be a good income for billions, if they wouldn’t have to live in Sweden to do the job. Startup idea: small drones for picking up trash, operated remotely by humans living in some poor country.

Jeff_Brown 5y ago
I love the drone idea. If the median per capita income is still what it was in 2013[1], $1.5 / hr would beat it. [1] https://news.gallup.com/poll/166211/worldwide-median-household-income-000.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/166211/worldwide-median-househo...
kwhitefoot 5y ago
There is no legally defined minimum wage in Scandinavia. There are agreements between unions and employer organizations for the pay for classes of work. At least that's how it works here (Norway).

alkonaut 5y ago

If that cost is the cost of an employer then the cost is at least twice the pay the person doing the work would get. E.g. to run an operation where someone is paid $10/h your cost is likely $20/h including insurance/clothes/transport and other overheads for the employer (Payroll taxes alone are usually around 50% on top of the hourly pay). So if the cost is a dime then a cigarette butt picker might make 5c which isn't as great. It's 200 butts/h for minimum wages.

lillecarl 5y ago

I wonder where that number comes from, we clean our streets with vehicles these days whether there are cigarette butts there or not.

Jeff_Brown 5y ago
Streets are relatively easy to clean. I'm imagining the crows cleaning up the dirt under bushes, half-open drainpipes, etc.

jopsen 5y ago

The number is also interesting because one could simply apply a littering tax. Kind of how there (still) is a tax on empty CD media...

ekanes 5y ago

Sort of! Depends on where you live - it might not be much in Sweden.