Cleanliness is a big issue everywhere, especially in China. The government of Shengzhou decided to do something about the situation, especially the cigarette butts left on the streets.
Exchange Cigarette Butt for Tissue Packs
They decide to entice people into beautifying the city by coming up with a campaign that allows it’s people to exchange cigarette butts for tissue packs.
The rationale behind it is understandable: the more cigarette butts are returned, the lesser there will be on the streets.
Unfortunately, no plan survived the first contact with the enemy, and this is no exception.
A boggling amount of cigarette butts
Things were going smoothly, but a spike in cigarette butts alarmed them. In less than a month, 4.8 million cigarette butts were turned in, and there are more to come.
By then, the local sanitation department has given out more than 100,000 tissue packs.
It was mostly the elderly who carried out these exchanges. An official also remembered that one elderly woman brought along a bundle of 9,100 cigarette butts to do the exchange.
Suspect that Cigarette Butts are Brought in from Other Cities
The numbers grew so ridiculous the officials suspected that people are asking their relatives to send their cigarette butts into the city for tissue packs.
They decided to call off the campaign because it wasn’t in “the spirit of the campaign”.
Featured Image: shanghaiist.com
This article was first published on goodyfeed.com