Cigs Are For the Birds

🚯 More than 1 billion cigarette butts are left on the streets of Sweden each year, making it the country's most prevalent type of litter (62% of the overall total).

But Swedish startup Corvid Cleaning believes they have a more efficient and cost-effective solution to curb the waste: crows. The birds are taking part in a project to clean up the littered butts on a voluntary basis, and were specifically chosen because of their intelligence (more on that later).

⚙️ How it works:

• Crows are trained to pick up cigarette butts they spot on the street
• They bring those cigarette butts to a machine created by Corvid Cleaning
• After the crow drops the butt into the machine, it dispenses a food reward 👇

+Zoom out: A similar method was used by a Dutch startup in 2017, and by a French historical theme park called Puy du Fou in 2018. The idea for the latter stemmed from the park's falconry display where the birds picked up roses and brought them to a 'princess' in a castle, EuroNews reports.

Corvid Cleaning will complete a test in the Swedish city of Södertälje before potentially rolling out its method more widely (with the birds' health being a key consideration given what they're picking up). Globally, more than 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered into the environment each year.

+Go deeper: Crows can use tools, remember people's faces and share grudges, transfer knowledge, solve complex puzzles, understand the concept of zero, and even mourn their dead. Some studies suggest their level of reasoning equals that of a 7-year-old human.

Learn more about crows, possibly the smartest non-primate species on the planet.