India's rubbish (by Joe)

No, not that it is rubbish (it's fantastic, actually), but it does have a lot of rubbish .... or at least visible rubbish.

Whereas in Europe, we hide rubbish in bins, throw it into out-of-town tips and bury it in landfill sites for future generations to deal with, India appears to have very little in the way of organised refuse disposal. In virtually every town we have visited, rubbish lies piled up on the streets, at bus stops, railways stations and in squares for scavenging cattle, pigs, dogs (and even humans) to root through.

Some efforts are being made. Mumbai city centre, for example, was relatively clean and there was evidence of organised refuse disposal. A law has also recently been passed which means food and drink sold on parts of the railway network must be sold in bio-degradable containers - so tea, for example is sold not in plastic or polystyrene, but in simple, cheaply produced clay cups - and hot food in (banana?) leaves (see left - a pile of biodegradable refuse).

However even on the railways there are exemptions for certain 'packaged' food types - which means that, for example, Lay's crisps (Walkers in the UK) continue to appear in their colourful and salient plastic packages.

The bio-degradable initiative may be worthy, but with increasing use of packaged consumables invariably accompanying economic growth, you can't help feel India is fighting a rising tide.

Joe