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An open letter by the 'Dustbin'

 To whomsoever, it MAY concern  TO EVERY CITIZEN OF THIS COUNTRY


Hello all,

I am the most commonly found item in every public place, residential area, office, city, etc. I am probably, one of the most ill-treated and widely exploited man-made products, “Dustbin”. You find me in different forms, colors, and shapes and I am usually made of plastic/metal.



I have been bearing the pain of carrying waste in every possible form throughout my life. Having said this, I am not immune to the senseless actions of my creators and users around me. No one can see how many times I cry a day. 

You might wonder, what this dumb thing is saying. I am born to collect rubbish but I don’t speak rubbish! Let me explain.

People always throw waste of different forms without sorting it at their source. As a result, I end up carrying the waste every time to a nearby landfill or water body. These days, poor speechless animals are also dying by eating the food along with plastic with it.

The way everyone handles waste is extremely concerning to me and I just can't see living with this practice. I am more aware than anyone of the pain and consequences of plastic waste ending up in our rivers, oceans, and landfills. I certainly think I am the prime reason behind all the waste ending in these places but I am helpless.

       Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/india-s-trash-bomb-80-of-1-5-lakh-metric-tonne-daily-garbage-remains-exposed-untreated-1571769-2019-07-21

When I introspect, I realize the fact that waste generated today is from single-stream i.e., most of the people put all kinds of waste in a single bin. As a result, it’s extremely difficult for the municipal bodies and NGO's who are working hard to collect, sort and recycle them.

Why should someone else handle and sort your waste? Is it not your responsibility to collect them separately and hand them over? I am sure there is no denial of this question and should make everyone think about it.

The day is very near to see your local municipality stop collecting waste forcing everyone to handle their own waste. It’s definitely better to wake up now and act!

These days, I hear everyone talking about the circular economy but enough attention is to be given to segregation at source as it’s the key to all problems. One might counter me that segregation at source is a tough thing to do when the current ecosystem is not yet ready.

I opine if each one plays their part by sorting all the waste they generate and routing it to the right channel, we will not see any waste on our roads, rivers, and households.

The informal recycling system is very vast, effective in our country and today you can find those shops everywhere. They do accept plastic items from all and it should be our responsibility to support the chain. Even the multi-layered plastics that are mostly used can be recycled. One notable work I would like to mention here is by ProjectMumbai.org. Their award-winning initiative Plastic Recyclothon collects the plastic waste at your doorstep once in a month. (https://projectmumbai.org/) I am sure one can think of several other good ways to responsibly act with the waste.

As a sincere request,
  • I ask everyone not to mix wet waste and dry waste in the first place and collect it separately.
  • Sort out the dry waste as per categories - bottles, packaging materials, multi-layer plastics, etc. and hand it over to the recycler directly in your town.
  • I also wish to see housing societies, schools, offices, individuals to create composting sites in order to efficiently use the wet waste.
  • Follow the signs mentioned on dustbins when you put anything inside.


Humans have done extraordinary things like landing a satellite on an asteroid to collect samples and get it back to Earth, finding medicine to the incurable diseases, etc. I am sure this problem is very tiny.

I am and will be always faithful to the humans who created me and I want everyone to do their part by acting responsibly. Zero Waste Living is Simple, Cost-Effective, and Fun.

If there's anything I wish for in my life that would be no less than supporting the circular economy and urging citizens to generate less waste.

Sadly, I don't have any holidays and have to go back to my job of collecting waste. Thank you all for sparing your time.

I would like to end with a beautiful quote. 

Rethink your choices
Refuse single-use
Reduce consumption
Reuse everything
Refurbish old stuff
Repair before you replace
Repurpose and reinvent with your creativity
And Recycle


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