February 8, 2024

Hot Piles of Garbage

There’s hot piles of garbage everywhere. Hopefully you’re not about to read one. Many of my ideas are hot piles of garbage. Sometimes, my body feels like one. Even my cooking is sometimes a hot pile of garbage. I’ve always associated “hot piles of garbage” with something worthless, something so bad it’s beyond repair. That is until today.

Today, my colleagues and I with Hasiru Dala visited the MLP board manufacturing plant. In the outskirts of Bangalore, down a rocky dirt road is a warehouse. Inside there’s a large table saw. Behind that, a massive, bright orange, industrial looking machine brandishing the Trashcon logo in grime covered letters. Further back are two women, ordained in colorful Indian garb. They sit on the floor filtering through plastics at the base of a garbage tower stretching 20 feet up to the rafters and all the way back to the far wall.

Around the facility we went. We saw multi-layered plastics, bundled together like stacks of newspapers. We saw these plastics enter a shredder and come out like confetti. We watched this confetti get loaded into molds, and then run through the bright orange Trashcon machine. On the other side, masked workers draped in sweaty green polos popped off the molds. Before me was a board, 4 feet by 8 feet, with rough edges, and sparkly chunks that reminded me of granite countertops. As I stared, it occurred to me that what I looked upon was quite literally a hot pile of garbage. Hot garbage never looked so pretty.

What were once dirty wrappers destined for a landfill were now a glorious symbol of sustainability. Hasiru Dala hopes that this material can be utilized in products from construction materials, to park benches, and drink coasters. At scale, this has the opportunity to divert one of society’s least usable waste products into more productive and sustainable means.

This hot pile of garbage contrasts with others I’ve seen. Around the city you’ll see garbage being burned. I typically confuse it for a barbeque upon first sight of the smoke. From our time with Hasiru Dala, we’ve learned this typically emerges when waste collection fails to meet the needs of residents and hence resort to public dumping.

I find the contrast between these two quite inspiring. At their core, waste is being removed by the same concept – heat it up, yet the products are vastly different. Rather than toxic smoke, there’s an opportunity to bring sustainable, affordable goods to those in need.

In reflecting upon this experience, I thought of the days I feel like a hot pile of garbage. I wonder if we accomplished anything today, if we’re any closer to understanding how to solve grand challenges. I question if I’m a good team member or if the people of GCIL and moreover India appreciate anything about my presence here. Who knows?

I do know, there are hot piles of garbage everywhere; some of them are mine. But some of them might change the world.

By Andoni