Recycling India Style

Date: 17 September 2010 09:51

Have garbage? Throw it out the window or drop it on the ground. Not
only will the locals find it strange if you don't but you aren't going
to find a rubbish bin anyway.

In a traditional Indian world before plastic this worked well. Animals
would eat the garbage and the rest would bio-degrade away.

With the introduction of plastic things are very different.

The first responders to your thrown away garbage are the cows and the
dogs. It is their job to eat or lick up anything that is edible.
Unfortunately cows aren't always so good at this and they often ingest
a lot of plastic accidentally. This sits in their stomach or
intestines and slowly starves them to death. Each cow incidentally has
an owner who never seems concerned about this.

The second responders are the poor and destitute who collect plastic
for 8c a kilo. Plastic doesn't weigh much and these poor souls who are
too proud to beg look like they could use a good meal and wash.

The third responders who theoretically come around every morning are
poor locals who are paid to sweep up the mess. They sweep up all the
crap and garbage into wheelbarrows and cart it away. The women that do
this are always dressed in brightly colored saris and always look
distinctly out of place among the stinking rotting garbage and cow
crap.

Also of note are the poor who collect electronics and batteries. They
sit on the ground with a small hammer crushing the batteries and
electronic goods and separating the metal from the poisonous innards
or plastic bits. They end up covered in the chemical dust from the
batteries.

That's right India is one big recycling/garbage bin.

Progress -

But progress is being made. Many states have banned plastic bags.
Fines for having them are huge. Some parks have also banned  plastic
(other then water bottles). In these sort of places sellers stick by
the rules and use bags of folded or glued newspaper while the fancier
shops use fabric bags. Food is sold in plates made of leaves.

All in all it takes awhile to get use to the garbage dump that is India.