‘This Bench Was Once a Bottle’: How 500 Tonnes of Plastic Waste Found a Second Life in Mumbai

Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) neighbourhood identifies as an urban sprawl. Towering offices cast their concrete shadows on the pavement below; their boxy silhouettes sometimes punctured by the welcome shadow of trees. The shade is a good respite. And on one particularly busy Mumbai afternoon, while in the area, I spotted another such respite — a bench.

No ordinary bench, this one was vivid, striking and demanded attention. It was almost amusing to watch it interrupt the city’s breathless routine, allowing passers-by a minute of rest.

A closer look revealed that the bench — which is part of a set of 70 — is a living story of sustainability, its journey inscribed on it in technicolour font: ‘This bench is made out of recycled plastic waste’.

The idea for a product of this nature was born during one particular beach clean-up drive organised by L&T, when, shocked by the magnitude of the plastic waste suffocating Mumbai’s shores, the team brainstormed on a plausible solution.

Conversations with Project Mumbai led to the idea to turn plastic waste into benches, tiles, desks, bins and garden utilities, which could be reintegrated into community spaces across the city.

A full-circle impact is what the Lead CSR at L&T Energy Hydrocarbon, calls it. To this end, in 2020, L&T, in association with Project Mumbai, launched The Mumbai Plastic Recyclothon (TMPR) — a citizen-led initiative to mobilise the people of Mumbai to join the movement to curb plastic pollution by becoming part of the solution and choosing to recycle their plastic waste.

Championing awareness around recycling 

BKC isn’t the only location where a sustainable narrative is being spun in the form of recycled benches and tiles. “You’ll also find them at Byculla Zoo, and in the four zero-waste gardens around Mumbai that we developed last year,” she shares.

The gardens are a case in point for sustainability, featuring paved pathways made of recycled plastic tiles. And despite their raw material being primarily waste, she points out that the benches look just like any other.

I disagree. They look even better!

But even as L&T’s eco-conscious endeavours are giving waste a purpose while simultaneously beautifying the city, the cause transcends that. The company sees the recycled benches as conversation starters around the larger pressing issue of plastic pollution. They see the waste-to-product model as a way of breaking the ice between these topics and children, making them a part of the dialogue around waste mitigation.

The Lead CSR at L&T Energy Hydrocarbon remarks, “During these sessions, we see how excited children are about collecting plastic waste, and then watching the waste be turned into pencil boxes. They see it as a kind of celebration of how waste can give them something beautiful.”

Acknowledging that awareness among citizens towards recycling has seen a surge in the recent past, Shishir Joshi — founder and CEO, Project Mumbai — reasons that the first priority must still be to reduce plastic consumption.

That being said, the plastic that does go into use must be set aside for recycling, Shishir urges, no matter the kind and form. “The moment people start segregating the plastic, and if they’re unsure of what must be done with a certain kind of plastic, there’s a chance that it may find its way into a landfill instead of being recycled,” Shishir reasons.

If you’re sceptical about the recycling potential of a form of plastic, simply set it aside for the recycler to make that call.

The next step after collection is to weigh the plastic to determine the amount that has come in through the drive, Shishir adds. “Then it gets segregated into plastic and non-plastic items; within plastic, it gets segregated into the kinds of plastic used in different amenities. Through our association with L&T, we’ve learnt to make it as creative as possible because citizens look forward to something different each time. The segregated plastic then goes into a crushing machine, gets moulded through heat and gets converted into pellets. Using these, different amenities such as T-shirts, benches, tiles, etc are created.”

The diversity in the plastic waste collected also ensures a gamut of multi-purpose products.

To authenticate the process, Shishir explains, “Once the plastic gets recycled, we are provided with an audit certification from the recycler, which states that all the material that has gone into making the particular amenity is from the plastic waste. People put a lot of faith in the process. It's a partnership of trust.”

In making this a citizen-led initiative — in FY 2024-25 alone, the initiative engaged over a lakh families and the volunteer base grew to four lakh citizens — recycling is transformed from a fringe practice to something deeply woven into the city residents’ daily lives.

Explaining the logistics of the drive, Shishir explains, the plastic waste is collected once a month across 45 locations pan-Mumbai, including housing societies, schools, colleges, and offices. 

The waste has been given a new lease of life in the form of 404 garden benches, 286 school benches, 266 dustbins, 240 flowerpots and 1,000 pencil boxes — distributed in BMC gardens, schools, and public spaces. Additionally, nearly 9,000 metres of recycled pathways have been created.

Tackling the tide of plastic waste through recycling

A technicoloured mess can be spotted across the landfills of India; it eclipses the skyline, growing higher every day, teetering on the edge, threatening to collapse.

A study by the University of Leeds, published in Nature, calling India “a plastic pollution hotspot”, revealed that, according to the paper’s estimated global data for 2020, the largest amount of pollution is emitted in India: 9.3 million tonnes — around a fifth of the total amount.

“India emerges as the place where the most emissions take place because it has a large population, roughly 1.4 billion, and much of its waste isn’t collected,” the report read.

The statistics are concerning.

But L&T, through its collaboration with Project Mumbai, beckons us towards the ‘other numbers’: over 500 tonnes of plastic waste recycled into benches, school desks, and public amenities; over 5,00,000 kg (500 tonnes) of plastic diverted from landfills and over 39,791 kg of waste removed from Mumbai’s beaches and water bodies.

With every item produced from the waste, a new hope is spun. And it takes on a different meaning for every citizen.

Take, for instance, the bench at BKC. For some, it’s a reminder to pause; for others, it’s a space of respite in the hustle; and for the city at large, it’s a reminder of the power of an idea to transform waste into purpose.

In partnership with L&T

Edited by Pranita Bhat; all pictures courtesy L&T

Sources

'Uncollected waste and open burning are leading causes of plastic pollution crisis': by University of Leeds, Published on 4 September 2024.