23/11/2025
Fancy that!
Wild crows are helping clean up cigarette litter in Sweden
A Swedish startup called Corvid Cleaning, based in Södertälje near Stockholm, has launched a pilot project that uses wild corvids—mainly crows and jackdaws—to pick up discarded cigarette butts.
The system works through a specially designed machine:
A bird drops a cigarette butt into the slot, and the machine releases a small food reward. The device can distinguish real litter from leaves or stones to prevent false rewards.
According to the Keep Sweden Tidy Foundation, cigarette butts make up around 62% of all litter on Swedish streets. Cleaning them manually is costly, but early estimates from the startup suggest that using trained wild birds could reduce the cost of removal by up to 75%.
The programme is still in the pilot stage, and researchers note ethical concerns—mainly the potential health risks to birds handling toxic cigarette filters. Behavioural consistency and long-term feasibility are also still being evaluated.
Even so, the project is attracting global attention as a unique blend of animal intelligence, urban innovation, and environmental problem-solving.
