#FillTheBottle
Launched on Twitter at the end of July by an Internet user, the hashtag #FillTheBottle has already made the rounds on social networks. The principle is simple: fill plastic bottles with cigarette butts abandoned on sidewalks, beaches or in public gardens. The challenge is then to take a picture, post it on the networks and indicate the path taken and the time taken to fill the bottle(s).
Every year in France, more than 30 billion cigarette butts are thrown away. Composed of many chemical substances, the cigarette butt is one of the most harmful waste for the planet and particularly for the oceans.
That’s why it is important to take care of the recycling of the collected butts. MéGo, a startup from Brittany, offers a solution for sorting, collecting and recycling cigarette butts. Ashtrays are installed in cities. The butts are then collected and recycled in recycling plants. Afterwards, they are cleaned and transformed into urban furniture, more particularly into sitting/standing benches. The young girl behind the #FillTheBottle challenge even called the startup on the networks, which offered to receive the collected butts. Cy-Clope, a Lyon-based startup, aims to manage smoking areas in the best way possible. To do this, the founders have come up with the “cy-clopeurs”, high-end, designer ashtrays available to companies and communities. The collectors are emptied according to the filling rate. In the same way, the cigarette butts are then recycled in the form of plastic, in particular insulation sheet or industrial pallet.
With the same objective of fighting against pollution due to cigarette butts, an initiative set up by a bar located in Barcelona, was born. The goal? To clean the Spanish beaches, littered with cigarette butts. In exchange for a cup full of cigarette butts, the bar offers a free beer or soda.
Suez is also launching a second edition of its #gourdeforyou operation during the Lacanau Pro 2019, a world surfing competition. The operation consists of distributing water bottles on the beach. With this operation, Suez aims to raise public awareness of the use of recyclable containers rather than plastic bottles.
#MaCitéVaBriller
Another hashtag launched on the networks: #MaCitéVaBriller. The challenge consists in gathering the young volunteers of a district to collect all the waste. The challenge began in the Garges-lès-Gonesse neighborhood in the Val-d’Oise and was made possible thanks to the association “Espoir et création”. The young people then challenged other neighborhoods to do the same by calling on them via the networks. Cities like Marseille and Saint-Etienne were nominated to take up the challenge. Giving the image of a clean neighborhood and raising awareness about the environment is the main objective of the challenge.
#10WasteChallenge
Finally, initiated last March on Instagram, the #10WasteChallenge consists in devoting 10 minutes of one’s time to collect as much waste as possible and post a photo of the collected loot followed by the corresponding hashtag. The challenge, launched by a young Belgian photographer, was taken up in France and Belgium and then spread to the 4 corners of the world such as Spain, Brazil or California.
In the same sense, the #5MinutesBeachCleanUp challenge encourages people to spend 5 minutes a day to pick up the numerous wastes on the beaches.
