High-Tech Plastic Waste

On Saturday, the Cryptic Moth team said goodbye to Tewari and jumped a flight from Delhi to Bangalore.



It was Nandu’s first time on an airplane and – for once – Ian wasn’t the most anxious flier of the crew.



We arrived quite late to our room at the Ivory Tower Hotel – a wonderful 12th floor suite overlooking India’s most high-tech and “cosmopolitan” cities.



We spent Sunday filming the low-tech sides of Bangalore like botanical gardens and the Nandi Temple. It was interesting how plastic bags were a common conveyance for offerings.



Thanks to a family friend, we met up with one of our local contacts, Partha, who has been a great ally on this trip. Partha greeted us at his office with the customary Masala chai and biscuits. Within minutes we realized how dedicated and influential he is to the greening of India. In a nutshell, he worked in film, the government, NGO’s and all the while pushing for corporate responsibility and government enforcement.



But Partha didn’t want to hog the spotlight. Instead, he offered up a young prodigee, Dr. Yellappa, a fiery environment minister who wasn’t afraid to voice his dissatisfaction with the powers that be.



Originally a forestry expert, Yellappa has seen how plastic pollution can infiltrate the soil, the water, the animals and now humans. To show us one example, he brought us to the outskirts of Bangalore where illegal dumping occurred. It wasn’t hard to spot the piles just off the road but Yellappa had one in mind.



This was medical waste.



Closer inspection revealed a literal pick-up-sticks of syringes, razors, plastic tubing, IV bags, and lots of packaging. To his credit, Yellappa climbed into the pit for a stand-up interview as locals looked on with mild curiosity.



Perhaps to lift the mood, our host drove us to see his friend at Bangalore University who teaches mechanical engineering.



Dr. Amarnath’s most recent research has been in the viability of waste plastic as alternative filler for concrete.



On site testing has shown the material to be quite denser and road trials have shown it almost impervious to cracks.



The following day we visited Bineesha at the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board. She deals mainly with e-waste and was more than happy to accommodate us at the last minute.



She brought us to Syed’s recycling shop where one entered through a small opening and into massive warehouse of yesteryear’s mainframes, monitors, keyboards, printers and even floppy disks are salvaged for just about every knob, circuit and screw that can be sold on the second-hand market.



Unlike the scenes witnessed in Delhi, Syed’s operation was legit and obviously flourishing.



On the other hand, much of the plastic housing is still sent to landfill and one has to wonder how such operations can keep up with the obsolescence of high-tech crap from both inside India or shipped as “aid” from western nations. What’s more, the bulk of Syed’s workforce was barely in their teens.



Once many pictures were taken – of us – Cryptic Moth sped off to meet some Canadian friends and friends-of-friends for dinner and drinks. Then, to save some money on hotels and cover some kilometers, we rented a car for the overnight drive to Goa. Palm trees, papayas and, yes, plastics await us.



Out.

G+I