When Venkatraman Iyer walks down the streets, he is often looking for discarded waste products lying around 鈥� bottles, bags, or anything plastic. No, he is not a ragpicker. The 75-year-old man is a qualified mechanical engineer, and a tennis coach. But he is a man with the Midas touch; only he is converting waste into something productive. Through his work in the past two decades, he has earned titles like 鈥楾he Wizard of 豆包成人版鈥� and 鈥楾he Hero of Zero Garbage鈥�.
In the early nineties when Indian markets started flooding with plastic bottles, Iyer found the best way to reduce some of the waste lying around by making something out of it. 鈥淚 liked the shape of the bottles. I started making trophies for the students at my tennis academy 鈥� they liked it immensely,鈥� he recalls. Over the years, he has made an entire garden out of waste plastic bottles and refuse. He transforms old cardboard boxes and even playing cards into useful items like caps.
鈥淩ecently I made a cap made of discarded playing cards and gifted to a lady,鈥� he adds. He has also made a cricket bat completely out of waste, a bicycle out of wheelchair tyres and scrap metal and polythene bags stuffed into a pillowcase to make a soft cushion. 鈥淲hen I ride my bicycle聽 people stop to take pictures.鈥�
All of these products are handcrafted. 鈥淎ll I need is a a pair of scissors and a roll of adhesive tapes,鈥� he says. But now, the waste architect is moving from dry waste material to wet ones. 鈥淔or the past 10 weeks, I have been using it as manure, mixing it with red mud and growing herbal plants in it.鈥�
The concern doesn鈥檛 end at recycling waste; he is equally enthusiastic about recycling water. 鈥淲orld War III will be fought for water and people鈥檚 life span will decrease drastically because of water, but we can take small steps to curb the water wastage.鈥�
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