No, crows aren’t cleaning up cigarette butts in Sweden

It’s best to never underestimate a crow. Mounting evidence shows the jet black birds display an intelligence rarely seen in other animals. The corvids have cognitive abilities similar to great apes, the ability to count and recognize human faces, and even use improvised tools. So it’s understandable if you didn’t think twice after recently reading about the Swedish town of Södertälje. According to resurfaced posts on social media, the town located about 20 miles southwest of Stockholm is currently training crows to clean up all the cigarette butts littering its sidewalks and streets.

But while Södertälje isn’t actually overseeing the experimental public utility project, the claim contains a kernel of truth. As the debunkers at Snopes.com explain, the idea was put forth to local civic leaders a few years ago. In 2022, a behavioralist named Hans Christian Hanssen presented a pitch for “Corvid Cleaning” during the city’s annual Science Week. The proposed project involved training wild crows to pick up cigarette trash and deposit them in specialized bins. These receptacles would then dispense a small amount of seeds as a reward for the birds’ efforts.

Multiple outlets and social media accounts soon picked up on the story and an accompanying video. There was even an independent research assessment of the concept published in the Emerging Economies Cases Journal in 2024 touting Corvid Cleaning’s “potential to revolutionize urban litter management.” But beyond the initial buzz, it doesn’t look like Hanssen’s proposal progressed much further. The official Corvid Cleaners business venture ultimately filed for bankruptcy in October 2025, although the story itself went viral online again only a few weeks later. Since then, claims that Södertälje is still piloting a crow-based custodian service regularly resurface.

It’s unclear why Corvid Cleaning shuttered last year, although the 2024 assessment may provide some clues. The study’s authors cited the “ethical implications and potential health impacts on the crow” among their chief concerns, as well as the public’s acceptance of the idea. It’s not the first instance of crows nabbing cigarettes, either. In 2018, a French historical theme park made headlines for debuting its own trash-grabbing crows. In the end, it’s not necessarily if humans can train crows to clean up their trash, but should they train them to do it.

If nothing else, the online misunderstanding serves as a helpful reminder that cigarette waste remains a major health concern for both people and the planet itself. The World Health Organization estimates humans throw away around 4.5 trillion filters every year, and that number may soon double. Cigarette butts build up in populated areas, as well as in more remote waterways, oceans, and forests. Once there, they can take decades to fully decay, all while releasing harmful chemicals into the environment. Whether with the help of intelligent crows or not, it’s a pollution issue that requires addressing.

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