8/ 100 Bottle Shredder Dogs
Like every government, India likes to introduce various schemes so that it gives the impression that they are doing something good for the people, or the planet. However, it is often the case that the people the scheme is aimed at aren’t properly consulted, and have very little interest in it, so the project fails to deliver much in the way of a positive outcome.
One famous project in India was the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) and its push to build millions of toilets across rural India. One of the most well known issues that arose was that despite the large scale construction of toilets, many people –particularly in rural areas – refused to use the toilets and continued practicing open defecation.
The public believed that defecation was something that was unclean and should be done as far away from the house as possible, not in a toilet just outside your front door. Many of the toilets were also unable to be connected to the scarce water supplies in certain areas with, what I can assume, gruesome results.
The dogs in today’s photograph are dozing in the hazy sunshine on a little shiny tiled platform built especially to display an Avanti BS 200 PV plastic bottle shredder. It even has its own wonky tin roof. This wonder of modern technology is in a very public spot, right in the middle of a complex of government buildings by the entrance to the City Palace in Jaipur. Thousands of people will walk by it every day and marvel at this symbol of their government’s commitment to ridding the country of plastic waste.
The only living beings making use of it, however, are these dogs. The platform is a brilliant spot for them to catch some sunshine. The extra height means you aren’t going to be run down by a scooter when you’re in the middle of your nap and you will be even easier to spot when passers-by are feeling in the mood to share some of their biscuits.
This bottle shredder had two plastic bottles jammed into it – no doubt put there by a foreign tourist trying to do the right thing. I myself only went over there with my empty water bottle so that I could use it too, before being told by a nearby soldier that it never works. It wasn’t actually even plugged in.
The strange thing is that there is already a thriving recycling industry in India. Kabadiwalas, or waste-pickers, collect and sell plastic bottles and other recyclable materials for money. Why go to the effort of shredding your bottle yourself for no reward when you can leave it next to a bin knowing that someone will come and collect it and make a living for themselves?
