From Raging Over Garbage to Making Garbage All the Rage...

 Even though Satya likes to sum up the journey from collecting plastic trash from the local beaches, to turning it into veritable pieces of art, with a simple abracadabra, it is really his optimism speaking. For actually, it hasn't been that easy for the sixty some members of zerowaste, most of whom are young backpackers from around  the world, stranded in Auroville, after that fateful lockdown in March, in the wake of Covid-19.

"Sure, we did have our own set of trials and errors, but, it  always felt as though we were moving in the right direction", Satya confides with his usual smile. Agrees Jorge, an Ecuadorian, who has been living in India for the last fifteen years, and is 

now the chief engineer for zerowaste's   plastic recycling program, being carried out in Auroville.

Livya and Bea, the two twenty year old Brazilian students are thrilled to be part of such an initiative, even though it means cycling several kilometers everyday. Recently, Livya also made an online presentation for her colleagues in the University of Sao Paulo, in which she spoke about the zerowaste group and its plastic recycling project. "The reception from the student body and the faculty was very encouraging," says a gratified Livya.

"Our objective is not only to clean up the beaches, but also create general awareness on its importance," says Satya, adding, "Do you know more 

than 650,000 marine animals  including dolphins, whales, seals and turtles, are killed or injured in discarded fishing nets each year?"

While some artists expressed interest in all the glass bottles that had been collected, and some others in the bottle caps, no one seemed to have any use for all the other plastic and net bits, which had begun to accumulate. "...This is where Jorge stepped in. Jorge's family has been  running a functional plastic recycling plant in Ecuador for years, and so naturally, he was thrilled to be involved with a similar project in India. 

And thence emerged a small unit on experimental scale. With zero investment,  and plenty of good will and determination of volunteers from all walks of life, the project was set in motion. Different kinds of plastics were identified and segregated accordingly, and rinsed thoroughly in big tubs. This heap of cleaned trash, was then left to dry, and be shredded. "It was hard work...trying to cut all that plastic manually, with pairs of scissors," Satya remembers with a laugh. "Some days, ten volunteers turned up to help, including two toddlers, who tagged along with their parents...and on other days, it was just a couple of us..."

A fully functional oven was built out of some leftover bricks by Venkat and Adhavan, two young engineers from Auroville. While a friend lent  a compressor, some volunteers brought in discarded pots and pans, bowls and cups, from their home, to be used as moulds. And thus began the process of melting the plastic,  pouring  it into moulds, and compressing, to produce beautiful bowls, cutting boards, coasters, wall hangings, chess boards, and several objects, with swirls of melted plastic imprinted on them. "It was truly exciting to see one's hardwork and vision come to fruition, " exclaims Satya, adding, "Imagine, had we just sat around, waiting for funds, we would still be writing proposals, and still waiting..." 

And this is not all. With the group aiming to use a 3-d printer to create everyday objects out of the amassed recyclable plastic bits,  sky is the limit. 

Zerowaste team is delighted that a few local youths have got inspired to help them in their endeavour. "Today, we had a new member join our team: Shyamkumar. He is only sixteen, and has been cleaning up the Kanagan lake in Pondicherry for the last two years," says Satya, a sense of awe clearly audible in his voice. For, to him it only translates into one thing: Hope for the future!