Project #1

2020 Seodaemun District Vitalization Project,
“Use of Behavioral Reinforcement in Developing a Convenient Cigarette Butt Disposer”

   Our team aimed to solve the indiscriminate cigarette butt disposal problem in the backstreets of the Seodaemun area using principles of behavior. We acknowledged that there existed cigarette butt disposers based on behavioral economics, such as ones where individuals may vote with cigarette butts.

   Though seemingly effective, such installations were not able to fully solve the problem.
Our diagnosis of the situation was that 1) the voting system could not continuously function as a positive reinforcement, and 2) there existed an inconvenience of putting the cigarette butt accurately in the disposal hole.

   Our team was able to come up with a design that would remedy the aforementioned weaknesses.

   Our design enabled smokers to naturally drop the cigarette onto the disposal bin. Simply sliding the cigarette butt into the hole, it was able to contain a large amount of cigarette butts. Made of steel, the bin was fireproof. After disposal, the individual was positively and negatively reinforced with refreshing candy with a push of a button.

   While our invention could not perfectly get rid of the cigarette butts lying on the ground, it proved to decrease them to a significant degree. Limitations were that the invention was stolen on the 8th day and thus it was impossible to speculate the long term effects. Also, due to the incident, we could not compare our invention with the established voting system disposer (The perpetrator was found but our team and the parties concerned decided not to press charges). Nevertheless, the Seodaemungu District acknowledged the significance of our work and awarded us with the grand prize for the project.