Impact report
• Executive summary
• Campaign overview
• Headlines
• Reaction
• Ellipsis data
• Next steps
#PickYourSide Impact video
Campaign overview
The issue
Most people get frustrated by litter: as well as being an eyesore, it’s expensive to clear up and damaging to our environment.
More than 20 pieces of litter are dropped per second, equating to 2 million pieces per year, the cleaning of which costs councils an estimated £1 billion annually (Keep Britain Tidy).
The solution?
Back in 2016, Hubbub launched the Ballot Bin: the world’s first voting ashtray, designed to keep cigarette butts off the street by asking fun questions.
In 2023, Hubbub and KFC tested whether general waste Ballot Bins could reduce litter on UK high streets and collaborated to launch...
• Project planning
• Product research
• Site visits
• Audience research
• Locations identified
• Campaign creative route
• M&E methodology developed
• Product development
• Plywood prototype testing
• Site visits
• Campaign launch
• Press engagement
• Social media engagement
• Ellipsis measurement
• Question refresh
• On-street surveying
• Ellipsis results
• Sharing impact
• Campaign reflection
• Next steps
Measurement and evaluation
• We partnered with Ellipsis Earth, an awardwinning environmental tech company who use advanced machine learning to scientifically measure litter
• Pre and mid-campaign surveying was undertaken to measure the effectiveness of the campaign in reducing litter levels
• We also created a robust M&E framework to measure the impact of our work, consisting of:
o On-street surveying of the general public in both locations
o Social media and webpage monitoring of the online reaction
Bin Locations
Three Big Ballot Bins were trialled in each location. Positioned in central, visible, high-footfall locations along the main shopping streets in each city. The positioning was supported by baseline data showing litter hotspot areas which either had no bin or poorly performing bins.
Introducing: The Big Ballot Bin
Headlines
*15% of UK adults had seen the Big Ballot Bins (Source: nationally representative polling of 3,000 UK adults by Censuswide, October 2023)
Talking Rubbish ✅ Tackling Litter
Of those who used a Ballot Bin, 58% had a conversation about them with someone
During the 8-week campaign, there were 618 mentions of #PickYourSide on social media seen by 3.6 million people
#PickYourSide was featured on BBC News and mentioned a number of times on BBC Radio 2
Our on-street survey had 114 responses from members of the public in Manchester and Southampton.
The Big Ballot Bins had a capture radius that was 2.5x larger than existing bins on average
Drinks litter was reduced by approximately 70% and food litter by around 60% within 20m of the bins
70% of people saw voting bins as a good way of reducing litter
Reaction
A social media sensation (part 1)
Our bins caught the attention of social media pages across platforms
Questions were raised on the vote count…
… with some suspecting foul play
A social media sensation (part 2)
…and the bins even became a meme template! Scott Mills was a great sport throughout…
Shared by…
BBC News feature
Watch the full feature
Boxxer collaboration
A key aim of the campaign was to engage young men on the issue of litter. One way we did this was through reactively collaborating with boxing promoter Boxxer by asking locals in Manchester to pick who would win in a boxing match between Chris Eubank Jr and Liam Smith taking place in Manchester. Despite the public picking Smith, Eubank Jr came out on top.
Boxxer X Spencer Oliver reel
A conversation starter
Let’s raise the stakes kruulik…
Litter related ratioing… now that’s new!
To confirm, the bins are real and might be coming to a Highstreet near you
Very punny, Daniel!
We like what you did there, Joey!
In the news
General public
Following the online reaction, we took to the streets of Southampton and Manchester to see how the bins were received locally.
It's fair to say that Sotonians and Mancs are fans of the Big Ballot Bin!
“It’s
quite a smart idea really!”
“I
honestly love them, I take pictures of them all the time”
“Makes
a change to wagging fingers and saying don’t do this, don’t do that”
“I think every Taylor Swift fan in the area is going to be throwing away everything they own”
“Anything that adds a bit of fun to something really mundane helps”
Click the video to hear how the streets of Southampton voted
General public
Additionally, we performed on-street surveying in both locations to quantify the public's perception of the Big Ballot Bins. Here’s what we found…
Had a conversation about Big Ballot Bins with someone after using them
Saw the voting bins as a good way to reduce litter
Had a conversation about Big Ballot Bins after using them
Noticed Big Ballot Bins in their local area
Said they were more likely to use a Big Ballot Bin than a regular bin
Our survey had 114 responses from members of the public in Manchester and Southampton.
Ellipsis Earth results
The results showed that all 6 of the trial bins across both cities demonstrated above average performance compared to the existing bins in each city, with comparatively high average capture rates and low zones of tidy littering within proximity to the voting bins.
The breakdown of litter categories within 20m of each bin highlights the impact on each type of litter; food litter was reduced by approximately 60% and drinks litter by around 70%.
The average capture radius of the new electronic bins was 2.5x greater than existing bins: 23 metres, compared to an average of 9.2 metres for existing bins.
Key takeaway: while initial results are promising, given the small sample size, further testing would provide a more detailed picture of their performance.
Next steps
Expressions of interest
136 expressions of interest in the Big Ballot Bin as a product
Councils
Schools / Universities Businesses Shopping centres
50% had not seen/heard of the original Ballot Bin voting ashtray
42% saw the Big Ballot Bin on Social Media
