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Startup Plans To Clean Up Cigarette Butts Using Crows (popularmechanics.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the butts-versus-beaks dept.

AmiMoJo writes: A startup in the Netherlands is developing the "Crowbar," a bird feeder that takes discarded cigarette butts as payment for dispensing food. A camera recognises cigarette filters and rejects any other objects placed in the Crowbar. The idea isn't entirely original, a gentleman in the US has already built a similar device and trained crows to deposit coins. The hope is that crows will be able to keep cities clean, sort through refuse and perform other tasks for our mutual benefit.
Popular Mechanics notes that crows "are some of the smartest animals in the world," suggesting this means "we could harness their abilities for the greater good of our planet."

14 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Gateway drug by Templer421 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To crows smoking marijuana.

    Next thing you know they will be robbing liquor stores and pirating music!

    1. Re:Gateway drug by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Funny

      To crows smoking marijuana. Next thing you know they will be robbing liquor stores and pirating music!

      Stone the crows!

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  2. human smokers will be trained by iggymanz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "it's okay for me to throw my butts into the street, because a crow will pick it up and get fed. I'm thinking of the crows"

    how about robots that pick up smoldering butts and use them to burn the faces of the smokers that throw them. I think this kind of negative reinforcement is a better solution and doesn't involve enslaving animals.

    1. Re:human smokers will be trained by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hee hee, crows will swoop in on unsuspecting smokers and snatch their still-lit cigarettes from their hands. They will grab entire packs when they can. It will be hilarious.

    2. Re:human smokers will be trained by iggymanz · · Score: 4, Informative

      crows can actually be taught to do that, even to peck the smokers faces as it wrests the cigarettes away. the ad campaign can feature excerpts from Hitchcock's "The Birds"

    3. Re:human smokers will be trained by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I was in the military back in the 1990s. Each day, two guys would be assigned as the "barracks NCOs". (NCO: Non-Commisioned Officer, enlisted person of corporal or above) They were there to ensure nothing bad happened without it being written down in a log book. Ok, ok, sometimes they prevented bad stuff from happening to begin with.

      One day, I had the barracks NCO duty. It was on a Thursday, which was cleaning day for Friday's inspections. One duty was having a work detail clean the yard around the building, and the common areas in the 4-story building. Usually this was having 15-20 guys walk around the building picking up trash, which was mostly cigarette butts, and 8-10 guys cleaning the TV lounges, walk ways, and laundry rooms. So that would be 2 or 3 guys per floor.

      Anyway, on my day I asked the work detail a simple question: Who here smokes?

      No one raised their hand. I asked again, and again. Finally I said "OK. Nonsmokers, point to the smokers." Hands went up pointing out the 7 or 8 smokers. So only the smokers walked around the barracks that day, picking up all those cigarette butts, and the other guys were ecstatic because they didn't have to touch those nasty things, and they had a lot more help cleaning the common areas.

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
  3. They are smart... by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Crows are smart, but I'm not sure about being smartest. I found an injured crow when I was a kid and took it home to nurse it back to health. It eventually got better, but didn't seem to have any interest in being returned to the wild. Whenever I would take it outside it would flop around like it still had a broken wing. It got to the point that it would start flopping around in the house anytime my mom would start bitching about it. She eventually threw it out the third story window, and it tried to fly back in. As soon as I opened the door to the house, it flew back in. It learned to ring the doorbell to get someone to open the door after a couple of days. I think my mom was happy when we moved, in part, to get rid of my pet crow.

    I wonder what the unintended consiquences of rewarding a bunch of crows could be? They may start raiding public trash and ashtrays for food.

    1. Re:They are smart... by KiloByte · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sounds pretty smart to me. Being in the wild means no food other than what you catch yourself, cold and so on. Faking an injury means having food delivered right under your beak, and a warm house. I guess you didn't do anything stressful like keeping the bird confined in a tiny cage, so the new environment wasn't bad.

      The crow wasn't a professional at mind-controlling humans like the Master Species so no meows at frequencies that simulate a human baby, no mind-altering parasites, and it doesn't look cute either, thus you managed to get rid of that crow... but the principle is the same.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  4. Crows more trainable than smokers? by MiniMike · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's too bad some humans can't be trained not to litter in the first place.

  5. I for one welcome... by Rujiel · · Score: 3, Informative

    There was a college experiment several years ago where people put on masks, some of which then messing with the crows. It became clear that they remember faces. https://www.popsci.com/science...

  6. Smokers are the worst by sycodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't know what it is, but even nice respectable people who smoke don't seem to have any issue pitching their butts out the window when finished, often not even making sure they are out. Not just a few wildfires have been started by this behavior.

    Bizarre.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  7. Re:Minute of hate by thrich81 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'll end up saying something similar to the Reverend, maybe less angry. We're (at least not me) aren't intolerant of smokers, especially now that little of it is done inside. I recognize it's a tough addiction to kick (I can't even kick my mild desire for sugary sodas). What I don't care for is cigarette butts all over the place. I don't throw my soda cans on the ground, they go into a recycle bin. If smokers would do something similar and get the other smokers to do the same, I'd have no problems with it.

  8. If you are going to train the crows ... by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...why train them to pick cigarette butts? Why can't you train them to poop on the smokers?

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  9. I do this with dogs. by pubwvj · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We have a large pack of livestock working dogs on our farm. I taught one to pickup trash for treats. Others observed this and picked up the behavior. One of them figured out how to increase the price by breaking trash up into pieces and getting treats for each piece. Doganomics.

    http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2011/0...

    It's quite successful.