Invisible heroes of Alibaug make best of changing waste economy

Mumbai: Every day, Shah Mohammed cycles through the bylanes of Alibag, balancing enormous gunny bags with the ease of an acrobat. He periodically stops to pick up soft drink cans, plastic packaging, pieces of mangled metal—the detritus of daily life—and pedals on, whistling to himself. His final stop is a courtyard centred around a giant weighing scale resembling a Subodh Gupta installation. Here, his brother Aish Mohammed separates and neatly stacks the material before it is trucked off to places where garbage is turned into gold.

- Namita Devidayal

Shah Mohammed and his brothers—originally from Siddharthnagar in eastern Uttar Pradesh—are the invisible heroes who keep India clean. They are part of that vast and mind-boggling army of waste collectors and recyclers that sweeps through regions where the garbage footprint is rapidly spreading without the supporting civic infrastructure to handle it.

“Without these people, the entire countryside would be a huge garbage mess,” says Stalin D of Vanashakti, an environmental NGO that has been lobbying for better waste management. “The contribution of this unorganized sector of waste collectors and recyclers across the country goes completely unrecognized. Their returns do not justify the efforts put in, they need to be part of the solution,” he says. “These people need both space and assistance from the Pollution Control Board or local authorities.”