Helsinki launches visible campaign to control littering – seagulls as stars
The anti-littering campaign riffs on the old Finnish saying of even the seagulls laughing at you, if you do something ridiculous: ”Älä roskaa tai lokitkin nauraa” (don’t litter or even the seagulls will laugh at you) is the key message of the Litter-free Helsinki (Roskaton Helsinki) communications campaign launched in late April. The campaign is part of the City of Helsinki Litter Control Action Plan, which is looking for solutions to curb littering. The campaign raises awareness of the harm littering can do and highlights the costs of littering.
In 2023, the City of Helsinki spent nearly 14 million euros on keeping public areas clean. The May Day cleanup in Helsinki alone cost over 150,000 euros, of which the share of Kaivopuisto was 100,000 euros.
Litter is a threat to the environment, causes health hazards and reduces the comfort of the urban environment. The most common piece of litter in Helsinki and the world at large is the cigarette butt, which people toss into the environment by the billions each year. When tossed into stormwater drains, this piece of plastic trash often ends up in the sea and even all the way on the dinner plates of residents of Helsinki in the form of microplastics.
The objective of the Litter-free Helsinki campaign is to make people aware of the issues caused by litter and encourage increased responsibility. Seagulls were chosen as the face of the campaign to educate people in a striking way.
“Seagulls are generally considered the bad guys of littering, when it is actually people who litter. Everyone can do their part to impact the comfort of Helsinki and be an example to others,” Head of Environmental Affairs at City of Helsinki Esa Nikunen says.
Watch the video: Helsinki trains seagulls as rubbish collectors
Could seagulls provide a solution to Helsinki’s litter problem? Join Head of Environmental Affairs Esa Nikunen to see how seagulls are being trained to pick up litter!
Seagull mascots land in Kaivopuisto on May Day
Littering is a major issue in large outdoor events, especially around May Day, for example.
The Litter-free Helsinki campaign will be launched on 1 May in Kaivopuisto. People will have the opportunity to meet the two seagull mascots of the campaign, Börje and Tuula, from 12.00 to 16.00. The seagulls will land near the gravel pitch in the midlde of the park, where you can also find the photo wall for the campaign.
Litter Control Action Plan to intervene in littering
Up until now, Helsinki has combatted littering actively in many ways. The City also implements and enforces the Waste Act and the Environmental Protection Act, supports the organisation of clean-up events and participates in several national and international environmental protection programmes.
In order to tackle littering even more decisively, Helsinki started the Litter Control Action Plan 2022, which is set to continue until 2025. In addition to campaigning, the plan includes many other practical measures concerned with the maintenance of public areas and construction.
“Addressing the littering issue is important to the City. Even though the action plan is the first of its kind, we intend to update it for a second season. The communications campaign is also not intended to be a one-off thing. Instead, I believe that our ’litter seagulls’ are here to stay,” Nikunen says.
Read more about the Litter Control Action Plan 2022-2025