Barbie or Oppenheimer: Southampton City Council calls on public to #PickYourSide

Introducing a new campaign to reduce the city’s litter

In a bid to reduce litter in the city, new bins have hit the streets of Southampton, encouraging the public to vote on hot topics such as Scott Mills vs Craig David, or Barbie vs Oppenheimer, using their litter.

The trial, established and designed as part of a partnership between Southampton City Council and environmental charity Hubbub, has seen three new Big Ballot Bins set up in the city centre, as part of a project to tackle litter in Southampton. The bins can be found on Guildhall Square and Above Bar Street.

The new Big Ballot Bins, located in the city centre, are the first of their kind, using sensors to detect and count which option the public vote for as they throw away their litter, with digital screens keeping track of the score.

Southampton City Council is not only encouraging the public to do their part and throw away their rubbish, but also to share their decisions on social media using #PickYourSide.

This new campaign coincides with the start of summer, with litter often becoming a more visible eyesore at this time of year. The latest figures show that the UK is spending £1 billion to clear 30 million tonnes of litter each year.

Councillor Valerie Laurent, The Right Worshipful Lord Mayor of Southampton, welcomed the launch of the scheme, saying:

“Southampton strives to be a cleaner, greener city, not only for those of us living and working here now, but for future generations to come. The ballot bins are an innovative idea and I hope will make a difference in making sure people are disposing of their litter properly, whilst having some fun in the process.”

Gavin Ellis, Director and Co-Founder at Hubbub, commented: 

"Since we created the Ballot Bin voting ashtray back in 2016 and saw it successfully nudging smokers to bin their butts, Hubbub has wanted to test the same approach with litter bins. We're always looking for creative ways to reduce littering and we hope the new Big Ballot Bins, which are built based on proven behaviour change principles, will do just that. We’ll be tracking the impact they have through independent, scientific measurement”.

The impact of the project will be measured using artificial intelligence which identifies and measures the amount of litter around Southampton’s Central Parks and charts how this has changed as a result of the new bins. This data will be used by Hubbub to develop anti-litter interventions to help to tackle Southampton’s litter problem.

Hubbub will be running a second Big Ballot Bin trial, also taking place this summer, in partnership with Manchester City Council.

For further comment please contact jharris@headlandconsultancy.com.

For more information about Hubbub, visit Hubbub.