Measuring what works: Reducing cigarette butt litter in Brazil

Across PMI's markets, our anti-littering efforts follow a shared global approach, but are designed and delivered locally. This allows each market to develop programs that reflect local needs and work with the right community partners. While the programs may differ, they all aim to reduce cigarette butt littering by raising awareness, making responsible disposal easier, and encouraging lasting behavioral change. 

Over the past five years, Philip Morris Brasil (PMB) has invested in several large-scale anti-littering initiatives. Through major cultural events, community engagement activities, and the distribution of portable ashtrays, these programs encouraged consumers to adopt more responsible disposal practices. The initiatives significantly increased awareness of litter prevention and positioned Brazil as one of PMI’s leading markets for anti-littering engagement. However, one critical question remained: were these efforts driving lasting behavior change, or simply raising awareness? 

Eu Cuido do Meu Quadrado (“I Take Care of My Square”) 

PMB recognized that participation metrics alone could not provide the answer; counting volunteers, cleanups, or ashtrays distributed could demonstrate engagement, but not necessarily behavioral change. 

In 2024, PMB partnered with Instituto Limpa Brasil, the official Brazilian arm of the global “Let's Do It” movement, which is active in more than 190 countries, to develop a scalable, replicable methodology to change littering behavior and measure change. Crucially, the initiative leveraging this methodology, “Eu Cuido do Meu Quadrado” (“I Take Care of My Square”) earned the active support of the São Paulo Municipality, both through its Urban Cleaning Department (Selimp) and its Climate Change Secretariat (Seclima). 

The initiative was designed around three elements of successful anti-littering programs: environmental education, community engagement, and accessible disposal infrastructure. Awareness campaigns were complemented by the installation of dedicated cigarette butt receptacles in high-traffic locations. What set the initiative apart, however, was the introduction of a fourth pillar: systematic impact measurement to assess real behavioral change.  

Rather than relying on perceptions, we developed a methodology that could generate evidence over time. To better understand littering patterns and assess the effectiveness of interventions, we leveraged Litterati, a digital measurement platform that combines artificial intelligence with geospatial analysis. By identifying litter hotspots and tracking changes over time, the platform generated actionable insights that informed awareness activities, including engagement with local retailers and monthly cleanup activities with local residents. This was paired with optimized infrastructure placement including 37 ashtrays installed in littering hotspots.  

Pilot: Vila Mariana, São Paulo 

The pilot was launched between June and August 2025 in Vila Mariana, São Paulo, where our partner was already active and had established relationships within the local community. To help assess the effects of the intervention, a nearby area was also selected as a control location. Over a 10-week period, Litterati and our partner monitored both areas through a combination of digital tracking and on-the-ground assessments. 

The pilot combined several complementary interventions, including awareness materials displayed at points of sale, engagement with participating local retailers exclusively to support anti-littering awareness and responsible disposal, community outreach activities, and ongoing monitoring of cigarette butt littering. By building on our partner’s existing community presence, the initiative sought to understand whether targeted awareness and local engagement could encourage more responsible disposal behaviors. 

During the pilot, researchers expanded monitoring over longer periods, introduced additional cigarette butt receptacles, broadened the scope of the awareness campaign and added additional control locations. They also used heat maps and geospatial analysis to better understand littering behavior at street level. Eight kilograms of littered cigarette butts were identified on approximately 232 kilometers of surveyed streets. Over the course of the pilot, a 31 percent reduction in improperly discarded cigarette butts versus the control locations was recorded, and more than 50 kilograms of cigarette butts were collected in the dedicated receptacles. 

As the pilot progressed, an unexpected pattern emerged. Changes in littering behavior were observed not only in the activation area but also in the nearby control area. According to our partner, this was likely because the two locations were geographically close and connected by daily movement patterns. Many residents from the predominantly residential control area regularly passed through the activation area, increasing their exposure to the campaign. In addition, some of the awareness materials, such as educational brochures provided to points of sale in the activation area, were later identified in the control area, suggesting that the campaign’s reach extended further than anticipated. 

This became one of the pilot’s most important insights, and directly informed the next phase of the initiative. When the program was expanded within the region, the activation area was widened to include additional cigarette butt littering hotspots that had been identified during the pilot, particularly around subway stations and hospitals. The expansion therefore represented more than a geographic scale-up. It reflected a refined understanding of how people move through the area, how awareness campaigns can travel beyond their original footprint, and where interventions may have the greatest potential to influence behavior. 

Expansion: São Paulo’s historic old town 

Following the pilot, in late 2025 the Municipality of São Paulo supported the expansion of the initiative into the city’s historic downtown area, extending the activation to a larger and more prominent part of the city. While the core approach remained the same, the next phase incorporated several lessons learned from the pilot. 

Another important learning concerned the selection of control and activation areas. During the pilot, the proximity of the two locations made it difficult to separate the effects of the intervention from broader awareness spillover. To address this, the historic downtown activation was designed with activation and control areas located approximately one kilometer apart. This adjustment enabled a more reliable comparison and showed no evidence of campaign contamination in the control area. 

The expansion also reinforced the importance of local engagement. Alongside awareness activities with residents and retailers, the initiative included the installation of disposal equipment in identified littering hotspots. The partnership between Instituto Limpa Brasil and cooperation of the Municipality of São Paulo was instrumental in increasing the project’s visibility, facilitating implementation in key locations, and strengthening engagement with local stakeholders and public authorities. 

At the same time, the expanded monitoring generated new insights. While the control area remained unaffected by campaign activity, it was found to have a higher concentration of cigarette butt littering than the activation area. This highlighted another opportunity to strengthen the methodology. Together with Litterati and municipal partners, the team concluded that future activations would benefit from establishing a baseline by monitoring locations before interventions begin, allowing changes in littering levels to be measured more accurately over time. 

By bringing together public authorities, civil society organizations, local communities, and private-sector expertise, Eu Cuido do Meu Quadrado demonstrates how collaborative action can contribute to reducing litter in public spaces. More broadly, it shows how our anti-littering efforts are evolving—from measuring activities to generating evidence, from isolated interventions to integrated partnerships, and from simple awareness to continuous learning and improvement.  

Looking ahead 

Littering results from individual disposal decisions, and no single program can definitively determine change in littering behavior over time. Initiatives such as Eu Cuido do Meu Quadrado can generate meaningful data, actionable insights, and practical learnings. These findings help inform how awareness-building, disposal infrastructure, and cross-sector collaboration can contribute to more effective litter-prevention efforts over time.  

Looking ahead, PMB plans to build on the positive results of Eu Cuido do Meu Quadrado by continuing to strengthen partnerships with municipalities, civil society organizations, and local communities to promote responsible disposal behaviors and help reduce litter in public spaces. By maintaining its focus on awareness-raising, accessible disposal infrastructure, and data-driven measurement, PMB aims to further refine the methodology, generate additional insights, and support the expansion of scalable approaches that can help reduce cigarette butt littering over time.