Hong Kong to Use DNA Technology to Publicly Shame Litterbugs

DNA phenotyping is just starting to be used to track down criminals, generate new leads on cold-case homicides, and put faces to unidentified and missing people.

Now in Hong Kong, it’s being used to threaten litterbugs with public shame, according to organizers of a new anti-polluting campaign.

“Don’t let it be your face,” the campaign said in one of its promotional videos released last month.

The campaign warns it will collect cigarette butts, coffee cups, and other sources of DNA – and could phenotyping the genetic material found on it to construct a face of whoever didn’t throw away their trash, making them the literal poster-child for the campaign, according to the Hong Kong Cleanup organization.

The tactic was conceived with the help of PR giant Ogilvy and Mather.

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Hong Kong has a serious trash problem. According to organizers of the annual Cleanup, nearly 4 million kilograms of refuse were picked up on city streets, in water, and along nearby trails. It’s estimated that 95 percent of the marine litter comes from local sources.

The DNA-shaming tactic is expected to hold each and every person accountable, they said.

“This campaign is one of a kind. It’s interactive. It’s innovative. It’s our own science experiment that we’re using to create social change,” said Reed Collins, chief creative officer in the Ogilvy and Mather office in Hong Kong. “Litter is such a major problem in Hong Kong and thanks to technology we can now put a face to this anonymous crime and get people to think twice about littering.”

DNA phenotyping was used for the first time this past January in a four-year-old unsolved murder of a mother and her young daughter in South Carolina, according to The New York Times. However, the accuracy of the genetic prediction is still under debate, according to several reports.