Throwaway world Want to be a leader? Live like the Americans. Citizens in the US, world leader in trashing, waste a million pounds (450 kilograms) in weight per person per year. Their annual garbage list: 1.6 billion kilos of carpet sent to landfills, 11 billion kilos of food, 136 billion kilos of organic and inorganic chemicals used in manufacturing and processing, and 320 billion kilos of hazardous waste generated by chemical production. The British meanwhile dump 2.5 billion nappies/ diapers a year. The Japanese use 30 million ‘disposable’ single-roll cameras annually. North Americans annually discard 183 million razors, 2.7 billion batteries, 140 million cubic metres of Styrofoam packing, 350 million pressurised spray-paint cans, plus enough paper and plastic ware to feed the world a picnic every month. More than half of the world's municipal waste is generated in developed countries. In the United States, for example, the US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the average American produces well over 0.75 tonnes of trash each year. Rich countries and people are better at making waste than making products. For every 100 kilograms of products manufactured in the United States, 3,200 kilograms of waste is created. Explaining the ‘sociology of trash’ Vanessa Baird writes in New Internationalist (In the Heap). "It is simple, the rich produce it, the poor deal with it. The rich who make it are considered ‘clean’; the poor who deal with it are considered ‘dirty’." The sociology of trash is simple: the rich make it, the poor deal with it.The rich who make it are generally considered ‘clean’; the poor who deal with it are considered ‘dirty’.

A stud in his ear. A shirt that hangs on him. Tight black pants. A serious picture of self-dignity — even with his ‘solution’ in hand. Meet 12-year old Ramu, ragpicker. As you wake up, get ready and rush off to school, college or office, he has already completed his day’s first round of work. Today he travelled only 5 km as yet. On some days, it can be 10. He moves on to a whole lot of other small jobs during the day, including begging. Washing cars, selling lottery tickets and newspapers, working as coolies and helpers in railway stations, automobile repair shops, construction sites, tea stalls and hotels. There are more than 7,00,000 Ramus in India.

Late in the afternoon he goes on his second round of collection. Followed by sorting and selling the ‘loot’. Most ragpickers are between 10 to 18 years of age. A happy and boisterous group, they spend their nights together on the streets, parks or graveyards. Ghosts do not bother them. Humans do. Some give them drugs. Some threaten them for sexual purposes. Still others arrest them for crimes not committed by them and beat them till they are barely alive.

Consider this too. Mr Johnson and Johnson produces shampoo bottles (or cola bottles, or milk packets, or batteries). Rukmini Devi uses them and throws them away with her vegetable peels, leftover rags, dust, soiled cotton, and the rotten papaya lying in her fridge for ages. This lot (half a kilo daily) reaches the local bins and finally the landfill. Everyday, 85000 tonnes of similar unsegregated waste packets are thrown out of Indian houses. Ramu digs through this huge mountain for their daily rotis. On his way back, he passes Ms Rukmini Devi, who screws up her nose. “Dirty Fellow! Hold on to your purse, he might just grab it away.”

Mr Johnson and Johnson, poor thing, does not even know Ramu exists. He’s on his way to discuss the latest shampoo bottle ad to entice Ms Rukmini.

In the capital city of India, the ratio of sweepers to population is 1:40, far less than 1:28 all-India ratio requisite. Half the trucks, loaders and tippers are inoperable at all given times. Ragpickers, the last in the human chain dealing with waste, do more than 20 per cent of the waste reduction job. While Ramu gets Rs 50, the lower middleman, who buys the waste pickings from him, makes Rs 4,500 to Rs 13,300 a month. Wholesalers, the last in the chain, deal with at least Rs 100,000 worth of goods before these reach the factories. The ragpickers in cities are badly exploited by the recycling agents, the so called ‘middle men’. Ramu gets loans from the agents, with a high interest rate, which he has to pay back in the form of plastic and paper wastes at the end of the day. If he is not able to collect that amount everyday, he is in debt. While going through waste, he gets nicks and cuts. Burning garbage exposes him to dioxins.

But Ramu has no complaints. Ragpicking is his job. He has free access to garbage dumps. But he still is a illegal citizen in a legal city, rummaging through waste in landfills that ‘belong’ to the government, and open garbage dumps which belong to no-one. With private waste companies coming in, will he become a tresspasser? Will a more organised group of Ramu and his friends fetch him a better deal, which means he gets dry waste from homes directly and a little more money? What does Ramu want?