Mini Ash­trays out of Recy­cled Mate­ri­als

Zero Waste Finland’s mini ash­trays made out of emp­ty blood sug­ar test strip con­tain­er for fes­ti­val use

Zero Waste Fin­land want­ed to pre­vent cig­a­rette butts from end­ing up in the ground with­out pro­duc­ing any new mate­r­i­al. Used blood sug­ar test strip con­tain­er were turned into mini ash­trays for smok­ers. A com­mu­ni­ca­tion cam­paign was con­nect­ed to the tri­al as well.

Inno­va­tion Tri­al

In the tri­al orga­nized by the Zero Waste Fin­land asso­ci­a­tion, emp­ty blood sug­ar test strip con­tain­ers were col­lect­ed from Oulu City Hos­pi­tal and OYS. The con­tain­ers were turned into mini ash­trays and about 230 pieces were dis­trib­uted to the smok­ing fes­ti­val atten­dees. Coop­er­a­tion with health care pro­fes­sion­als was an inte­gral part of the inno­va­tion because there is still much that needs to be done at hos­pi­tals when it comes to recy­cling and a lot of waste emerges there.

On top of this tri­al, Mulperi Media cam­paigned at the fes­ti­val and on social media about respon­si­ble stub­bing out of cig­a­rettes. Read more about Mulperi Media’s inno­va­tion tri­al.

Results

Mini ash­trays were received pos­i­tive­ly by the fes­ti­val atten­dees. The ash­trays were not dis­trib­uted to every­one, peo­ple were asked if they want­ed to a mini ash­tray for their cig­a­rette butts and snuff. A lot of spon­ta­neous pos­i­tive feed­back was received from the atten­dees.

Accord­ing to the Var­jo Fes­ti­val attendee sur­vey, 11,5 % used or tried the ash­trays and a total of 7 % of the respon­dents will con­tin­ue to use them after the fes­ti­val. Con­sid­er­ing the rel­a­tive­ly small num­ber of dis­trib­uted mini ash­trays, the response can be seen as promis­ing.

Briefly

• The tri­al was orga­nized by Zero Waste Fin­land ry.
• The event was 2022 Var­jo Fes­ti­val on August 5–6, 2022 in Kuu­sisaari, Oulu.
• The use of health care waste, used blood sug­ar test strip con­tain­ers, as repur­posed mini ash­trays at a fes­ti­val was test­ed. The response was very pos­i­tive and a part of the users con­tin­ued to use mini ash­trays after the fes­ti­val too.