Rubbish facts
This page contains filthy rubbish facts ranging from microplastics to cigarette butts.
On this page
- What effects does littering have?
- Most rubbish is made of plastic
- Cigarette butts are the most common form of litter in the world
- How does rubbish end up in nature and the oceans?
- How much does littering cost?
- How littering is controlled
- Helsinki is tackling the problem of littering in many ways
- Frequently asked questions
Littering is one of the greatest human-induced problems that threaten both people and nature. Littering is caused by many things, such as litter left in the environment by people, inadequate urban runoff treatment and insufficient waste bins.
What effects does littering have?
Littering has harmful effects on both ecosystems and people. Marine fauna – particularly mammals, birds and fish – can get caught in waste that has ended up in the sea. Similarly, eating rubbish can be harmful to a wide range of organisms. Plastic waste causes the death of one million seabirds and a hundred thousand marine mammals worldwide every year (Finnish Environment Institute 2022).
Litter also affects the overall living comfort, and its removal results in significant costs for society. In 2023, the City of Helsinki spent nearly 14 million euros on keeping public areas clean. The May Day cleanup in Helsinki cost over 160,000 euros.
Most rubbish is made of plastic
Plastic is everywhere, from food and cosmetics packaging materials to phone cases, clothes and interior textiles. Plastic waste accounts for the majority of all litter that ends up in the environment. Plastics persist in the environment for a long time, gradually becoming brittle and breaking down into smaller pieces and particles. The amount of microplastics, i.e. small plastic particles, in the environment is constantly increasing, and it is practically impossible to remove.
Microplastics are less than five millimetres in size. These microscopic pieces of plastic have been found inside fish, shellfish, crustaceans and even in deep-sea organisms on the ocean floor.
Microplastics also end up in the human body, especially through drinking water. People are exposed to microplastics daily through food, indoor and outdoor air (e.g. street dust), and skin, but the extent of exposure and its potential effects on health are not yet fully known (Finnish Environment Institute 2022).
Did you know that over 90 per cent of seabirds have consumed plastic? In the 1960s, this figure was less than five per cent
Cigarette butts are the most common form of litter in the world
Billions of cigarette butts end up in nature every year in Finland alone. It takes years for them to break down. Cigarette butts contain plastic and numerous substances that are harmful to organisms and will end up in the soil and water during decomposition.
Did you know this about cigarette butts?
- Cigarette butts are the most common form of plastic waste in the world, including on the shores of Finland.
- Cigarette butts contain e.g. arsenic, lead, nicotine, cadmium, copper and formaldehyde. These harmful substances are absorbed into the environment from cigarette butts discarded on the ground and in water.
- It can take up to 10 years for a cigarette butt to fully decompose, and in nature it will break down into tiny microplastics.
- Moreover, gritting sand cannot be reused the following winter because it contains so much litter – mainly cigarette butts.
How does rubbish end up in nature and the oceans?
Littering is caused by many things: litter left in the environment by people, inadequate urban runoff treatment, sewage overflow, fly-tipping, storage and disposal of snow removed from the streets, insufficient waste bins and litter carried by wind from construction and demolition sites.
Cities, in particular, have extensive drainage infrastructure for urban runoff. Urban runoff refers to rainwater and meltwater accumulated in built areas. In practice, a drainage inlet on a street leads water through open ditches and/or runoff drainage networks to the nearest body of water and, in some areas, to the sea.
However, because the drainage inlets do not have specific filters for debris, rubbish ends up in water bodies without processing. Particularly during heavy rainfall and snowmelt, large amounts of rubbish accumulated in parks, on streets and in snowbanks can quickly migrate to the sea and other bodies of water.
Many people also discard cigarette butts in storm drains. The annual Mahanpuruja muovista (‘Stomach ache due to plastic’) campaign reminds us that urban runoff is usually directed into the nearest body of water largely untreated. Read more about the campaign on the Pidä Saaristo Siistinä website (in Finnish).
How much does littering cost?
In 2023, the cost of maintaining public areas in Helsinki was almost 14 million euros. More than 4 million euros was spent on cleaning the parks in 2023. Cleaning up after May Day alone costs the City of Helsinki around 160,000 euros.
The cost of maintaining water areas (such as?) exceeded 400,000 euros in 2023, and cleaning stormwater drains cost Helsinki over 300,000 euros.
Littering also incurs indirect costs, as it can cause e.g. health hazards for humans and animals.
How littering is controlled
In Finland, the national implementation of the EU Single-Use Plastics (SUP) Directive was carried out through amendments to the Waste Act and associated regulations that entered into force at the beginning of 2023. The Directive is aimed at reducing plastic pollution in the environment, especially on seashores, promoting a circular economy and harmonising product regulation in the EU internal market.
Finland’s Green Deal on plastic packets is also part of the SUP Directive. The aim of this agreement is to ambitiously and permanently reduce the numbers of single-use plastic packets.
The City of Helsinki is implementing the SUP Directive in two different EU-funded projects. The aim of these projects is to reduce plastic and plastic litter in Helsinki.
The PlastLife project (link) promotes the circular economy of plastics. The BaltiPlast Interreg project is aimed at reducing the amount of plastic pollution released into nature by identifying, testing and implementing measures for influencing littering.
The amendment to the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (EU 2015/720) requires Member States to take measures to reduce consumption of plastic carrier bags. In Finland, the Ministry of the Environment and the Finnish Commerce Federation have drawn up an agreement to reduce the consumption of lightweight plastic carrier bags to less than 40 per person per year by the end of 2025.
Frequently asked questions
Helsinki has been tackling the problem of littering for a long time using various methods.
The City of Helsinki implements and enforces the Waste Act and the Environmental Protection Act. The City is responsible for waste containers in public areas, emptying nearly 8,000 containers around Helsinki. The party responsible for waste management in Helsinki is HSY.
The City is also responsible for various environmental monitoring and supervision duties. In 2023, the City processed 80 hazard reports related to waste. The majority of these hazard reports concerned littering. In reality, the number of littering incidents is much higher: because it is often not possible to determine the litterer, most littering incidents remain unresolved or are never processed. In these cases, the City cleans its own areas under the secondary obligation to clean up imposed by the Waste Act.
Additionally, the City coordinates voluntary work and Park Pals activities to hold volunteer cleaning events on shores and in green areas.
Litter control has also been taken into account in the City’s strategies and programmes. During the 2021–25 strategy period, the City will be focusing particularly on ensuring that preconditions for a pleasant city, such as the cleanliness of parks and streets, are taken into account throughout Helsinki. Helsinki is also involved in several cooperation projects aimed at reducing littering in Finland and internationally. Examples of such projects include the Baltic Sea Challenge, Mahanpuruja muovista, PlastLife and BaltiPlast.
In 2019, Helsinki signed the Plastic Declaration and agreed to develop strategies and action plans and set targets with deadlines for significantly reducing plastic litter. In 2020, Helsinki launched the Litter Control Action Plan.
The aim of the Litter Control Action Plan is to gather the best ideas for practical measures to reduce litter, tackle the growing problem of litter and the damage it causes to the environment and health, raise awareness and knowledge of the problem of litter and guide efforts towards reducing litter.
The Litter Control Action Plan consists of a programme of measures and a network bringing together those working on litter. The programme will be in force from 2022 to 2025 and then updated for the next council term of 2026–2029.
Many measures to curb litter require long-term and continuous action. On the other hand, some of the measures are more limited and short-term in nature, carried out for purposes such as piloting new innovations or seeking to solve a specific problem or development need. Many of the measures also require cooperation with different operators and stakeholders.
The litter control steering group meets twice a year to monitor progress in implementing the action plan. At the end of the programme period, the implementation and effectiveness of the programme will be reported to the Urban Environment Committee.
In 2023, the cost of maintaining public areas in Helsinki was roughly 14 million euros. More than 4 million euros was spent on the maintenance of parks in 2023. Cleaning up after May Day alone cost the City of Helsinki 160,000 euros, with Kaivopuisto taking up 100,000 euros of that sum.
The cost of maintaining water areas exceeded 400,000 euros in 2023, and cleaning stormwater drains cost Helsinki over 300,000 euros.
Littering also incurs indirect costs, as it can cause issues such as health hazards for humans and animals.
In 2019, Helsinki signed the Plastic Declaration and agreed to develop strategies and action plans and set targets with deadlines for significantly reducing plastic litter. In 2020, Helsinki launched the Litter Control Action Plan, which is the first of its kind for the City.
The creation of the action plan began with workshops held with the City’s internal and external specialists. It was concluded at these workshops that communication plays a significant role in the mitigation of littering. Consequently, an effective communication campaign was made one of the top projects of the action plan, involving providing comprehensive information about litter in the city and highlighting the costs of littering.
Helsinki residents also find that communication is an effective way to mitigate littering. In 2022–2023, the Cities of Espoo, Helsinki, Kauniainen and Vantaa carried out their first joint survey project on the environmental attitudes and behaviour of the residents of the region. One section of the Ympäristöasenteet pääkaupunkiseudulla (‘Environmental Attitudes in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area’) 2022 survey focused on the cleanliness and tidiness of the environment.
The results of the survey showed that respondents clearly placed the main responsibility for the tidiness of the environment on Helsinki residents. Only 10% disagreed with the notion that “residents bear the main responsibility for keeping the environment tidy.” Nearly 60% found that communication and encouraging tidiness are more effective than rules and regulations, while a fifth disagreed with this. On the other hand, hefty punishments for littering and messing up the environment were also supported (75%).
A large portion of littering mitigation comes from increasing people’s awareness and knowledge. Filling the city with waste containers will not help if the containers are not used. Instead of waste containers, cigarette butts often end up in rainwater drains, as not all people are aware of their adverse environmental impacts. The Litter-free Helsinki communication campaign aims at increasing awareness and, consequently, changing people’s behaviour.
People’s travel directions and hubs and the locations of lounging areas are taken into account in the placement and size of waste containers. Waste containers are also added and removed based on residents’ feedback and wishes, as well as the views of the workers maintaining the containers.
The placements and sizes of waste containers are also influenced by their emptying method: smaller containers are emptied manually, while emptying large waste containers often calls for heavier equipment.
Fixed waste containers are not placed along routes that are not covered by snow clearing operations in winter. If a route is not ploughed, any waste containers placed along it cannot be emptied, either. In winter, waste containers are often filled up only in certain areas, such as actively used dog walking routes. The City’s aim has been to install deep or larger-than-normal waste containers in the junction points of these areas.
The inner city of Helsinki is a maintenance class 1 area, where waste containers are emptied every day. The party responsible for emptying waste containers located in public areas is the City, while property owners are responsible for emptying containers located on the pavement, and at bus and tram stops within the inner city area.
There are 2,510 waste containers in the green areas and 1,291 waste containers in the street areas of inner city Helsinki.
Suburbs belong to maintenance class 2. They have fewer waste containers than the inner city area, and the containers are also emptied less frequently. There are 2,610 waste containers in the green areas and 1,696 containers in the street areas of Helsinki’s suburbs that are maintained by the City.
Helsinki’s forest areas are not covered by regular cleaning operations. Forests are mainly cleaned if an acute need for cleaning arises (due to unauthorised landfills or other waste deposited in forests) or as part of litter picking events organised by volunteer residents.
The total number of waste containers in the street and park areas of Helsinki in 2022:
- waste bins and containers: 7,146
- smart waste containers: 75
- deep containers: 661 (sizes varying between 150 and 5,000 l)
Cigarette butts are the most common form of litter in the world. It has been estimated that in Finland, more than four billion cigarette butts are tossed into the environment every year. Many people do not know that cigarette butts are also plastic litter.
Cigarette butts contain substances such as arsenic, lead, nicotine, cadmium, copper and formaldehyde. These harmful substances are absorbed into the environment from cigarette butts discarded on the ground and in water.
Instead of ever disappearing, cigarette butts break down into microplastics, which end up in the soil and water. This process can take up to a decade. Therefore, cigarette butts are harmful to all of nature: animals, the soil – and people.
Instead of discarding them on the ground, cigarette butts should be placed in a container such as a closed pocket waste bin or a biowaste container, after the cigarette has been carefully put out. Cigarette butts must not be tossed into a rainwater drain, as stormwater often flushes them out to the sea. Stormwater refers to rainwater and meltwater accumulated in built areas.
As a practical example, a drainage inlet on a street leads water through open ditches and/or stormwater drainage networks to the nearest body of water and, in some areas, to the sea. However, because the drainage inlets do not have specific filters for debris, litter ends up in water bodies without processing. Particularly during heavy rainfall and snowmelt, large amounts of litter accumulated in locations such as parks, streets and snowbanks can quickly migrate to the sea and other bodies of water.
The Mahanpuruja muovista (‘Stomach Ache from Plastic’) campaign is part of the Litter Control Action Plan. The campaign increases awareness of the fact that stormwater is usually directed into the nearest body of water largely untreated. Stickers are placed around drainage inlets to remind people of this. The campaign will be back on the streets of Helsinki from 19 August to 1 September 2024.
The City of Helsinki uses one snow dump site at which snow is dumped into the sea to melt. The Hernesaari snow dump site is important to snow logistics in the inner city, the mobility of emergency vehicles and the safety of all people using the streets. The temporary environmental permit for the Hernesaari snow dump site will be valid until October 2031.
The City’s other snow dump sites do not have room for snow from the inner city, nor can new snow dump sites be established in the inner city area. The City is planning to replace the Hernesaari snow dump site with a network of roughly 21 smaller melting sites that would have the capacity to melt a total of 35,000 snow loads in winter. These local melting sites would also shorten snow transport distances and thus reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
The aforementioned melting and filtering plants are still in the trial phase and require more development. This development work focuses mainly on the melting capacity, filtering efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the equipment.
Snow carries litter to snow dump sites, with the majority of this litter consisting of grit. At the Hernesaari snow dump site, the grit sinks to the bottom of the sea in the immediate vicinity of the dump area, from which it is removed every year by dredging. The dredging spoils are examined and then transported to a suitable dump site.
In order to prevent litter from spreading beyond the Hernesaari snow dump site, the site received a floating boom in autumn 2023 and a bubble curtain in January 2024. The bubble curtain and the floating boom were installed to prevent litter from spreading out into the sea.
A boat unit removes any visible and floating debris from the snow dump area every day. Furthermore, the local areas are inspected and tidied up in spring before the nesting season of birds.
Experiences with the floating boom and the bubble curtain have been positive. The results are also verified by examining sea samples from the snow dump area and beyond in a laboratory. The current measures in place are deemed to be sufficient to prevent littering, and they conform to the regulations of the environmental permit.