Most students do not have an income that Mark Zuckerberg would envy. And once they’ve paid for all the important things like concert tickets, all the right label clothes, the latest tech and the coolest sunnies, there’s not much left for food.
So DDB Stockholm put student poverty to good use. It developed a new currency – cans – that can be used as an alternative to cash and credit at McDonald’s in Sweden.
A local billboard announced that Maccas would accept "cards, cash and cans". Attached to it was a roll of black plastic bags. On each was printed an itemised price list: One recycled can is worth 1 Krona (AU 15 cents). Customers with 10 cans can buy a hamburger. Those with 20 can buy a cheeseburger. 40 cans buys a Big Mac.
The more cans used, the more wins all round.
What a good way, Maccas, to extend Keep Australia Beautiful Week, which happened to be last week – 25 to 31 August. KAB focused on discarded cigarette butts this year, because – once again – they’ve topped the list of the most commonly littered items in the National Litter Index. (Well done, smokers.)
So KAB nominated 29 August as Butt Free Friday during KAB Week 2014. Happily, the National Litter Index had some good news to share.
It also put its enthusiasm into backing The City of Sydney’s cash for cans vending machine trial, which was launched in Sydney in June to promote the idea of a cash for containers scheme in NSW. 15,000 bottles and cans are littered or landfilled in Australia every minute. (Well done, Aussies.)
The City of Sydney placed two Envirobank machines in high traffic areas, Circular Quay and Haymarket. To promote its recycling message, a giant ten cent piece sculpture, made from about 3000 recyclable bottles, was also installed outside Customs House. Each Envirobank can held 3000 bottles before it needed to be emptied. Every aluminium can recycled saved enough electricity to light a 100 watt bulb for 3.5 hours.
Best recycling vending machine idea, though, goes to eco-fashion designer Allison Parris and the American Chemistry Council, for its Plastics Make it Possible campaign during New York Fashion Week last year. Its vending machine accepted plastic bottles as currency for limited-edition T-shirts, which when worn would spread the message further.
