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Crows are considered to be some of the most intelligent birds around and some will be trained to pick up litter in exchange for food, potentially saving the Nordic country millions in street-cleaning efforts.videoA start-up in Sweden has begun recruiting crows in a pilot project to assist in cleaning up the streets of the city of Södertälje in Greater Stockholm.Crows are among the most intelligent animals in Sweden and can learn to pick things up in exchange for food, something that the local company Corvid Cleaning aims to benefit from. In particular, the birds will be taught to pick up...

Were you aware that cigarette butts are the category of waste that is least disposed of? Every year, no fewer than 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are found in the wilds, even they can take up to 14 years to decompose... It’s enough to make you see red. To fight against this plague, Dutch engineers working with Delft University of Technology have invented the BeachBot, an autonomous robot capable of picking up cigarette butts from the ground. Tired of seeing their children find cigarette butts on beaches, Edwin Bos and Martijn Lukaart, Dutch engineers from TechTics, set out to create the...

A California surfer has won a recycled surfboard contest with an entry covered with 10,000 cigarette butts. “This is the most polluted item picked up on the beach,” creator Taylor Lane told the Orange County Register. “And no one thinks twice that you can do anything with it.” Lane, 24, from Santa Cruz had the top entry amid an assortment of boards made from potato sacks, used packaging and stuff picked up from Dumpster dives. An Australian entry was made from an old bathroom door. The entries were for the third annual “Creators & Innovators Upcycle Contest,” hosted by the...

Death from above: North Korea has started using balloons to drop cigarette butts on the South Choe Sang-Hun, The New York Times February 5, 2016 8:44 AM ET More from The New York Times SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea likes to call South Korea a land of "political filth" and its leaders, including President Park Geun-hye, "human trash." Now, apparently to highlight its contempt, it has begun sending balloons into the South loaded with an unusual payload, the police here said Thursday: cigarette butts. North and South Korea have escalated their propaganda war across their heavily armed border since...