Passing The Rupee

The overnight 3rd class sleeper (including 65kg of gear) from Goa to Mumbai didn’t slow us down.



After a quick shower and Chai at the hotel, we met up with Mr. Gokhole of the Indian Chemical Council. He was our point man to the plastic industry’s people, organizations, and businesses. After a quick meet and greet, powerpoint presentations and a lunch of club sandwiches (veg) we settled on three interviews…the following day.



So we took in some sights.



On Thursday, Mr. Gokhole, 3 of the team and a driver piled into a miniature Fiat taxi and headed to the posh headquarters of PlastIndia – the apex organization of 7 different industry organizations that promote the benefits of all things plastic.



Mr. Mehta is the big-boss. He graciously agreed to a 30+ minute interview and took the environmentally-slanted line of questioning in stride. As he sees it, plastics create jobs, save trees and consume less energy in the manufacturing and transportation than other materials. Drip-irrigation plastic pipes are also modernizing Indian agriculture.



But the stats that industry repeat is how Indians are low per capita consumers of plastic (4kg v.s 15+ for USA) as well as one of the best recyclers (over 60%). That – according to Mr. Gandhi, plastic manufacturer for the auto industry – is because Indians don’t waste a thing.



Broken plastic chair? There are tradesmen to melt it back together.



Deepak from the Organization of Plastic Producers (one of the seven org’s under PlastIndia and our 3rd interview) re-iterated these points as well as how only .4% of all plastic waste is litter.



And yet plastic packaging still lines the streets and rivers or smolder in small piles for warmth. For industry, that is a consumer awareness and government waste handling issue. Mr. Mehta also admitted that it’s also about economics. The industry is seeing “exploding growth” (15% a year) so more plastic is on the way to feed the billion+ population.



The next day, with Mr. Gokhole as our escort, we got to see it for ourselves.



Daman is an industrial town about 200km north of Mumbai. Of the 1500 of so factories in operation, 1200 are plastic-related. We visited Cello, one of the largest producers of household plastic goods like pens (3 million/day), chairs (10,000/day) and toothbrushes (50,000/day).



Cello’s Director, Mr. Sharma, showed Cryptic Moth his impressive operations which included an army of women who assemble, package and perform quality control tests on the 18 pens that are produced every 32 seconds.



The next morning we had to say goodbye to our wide-eyed “handlers” Nandu and Kanta. They were a joy to have on the team and we will miss them very much.



Boom.



Fittingly, our last scheduled shoot with industry – and for the India trip – promoted a solution. Earthsoul is India’s only bioplastic company and manufacture 100% compostable bags made from Novomont’s corn and vegetable oil mix.



Perses, the company’s founder, owned his first plastic company at age 21 and now runs several companies from beer to bottled water. This latest venture is clearly an environmental passion as his bioplastics haven’t yet become viable – catering only to 5-star hotels.



That said, Perses wants to devote more – if not all – his time towards cradle-to-cradle business practices and is already developing food containers for the burgeoning fast-food industry and wants to build a larger manufacturing operation using local feedstocks as the raw material and renewable energy to power the whole operation. If anyone could do it in India, our bets are on Perses.



And that wrap’s up Cryptic Moth in Flight…for now. We expect a few trips to the USA as well as posting the trials and tribulations of editing 300+ hours of footage. Thanks to all those who popped in to read about our travels and who emailed words of encouragement. Most of all, thanks to all of the willing participants who stepped in front of the camera and shared their thoughts, feelings, plans and solutions towards a world becoming more and more plasticized.



Quite a trip…

Namaste.

Out.

I+G