Women load colourful toy bears with white stuffing created from a substance that is typically found in a garbage can while sitting on the floor of a residence outside of New Delhi. They smile and chat as they work.
The substance is made of cigarette stubs that have been cleaned, bleached, and split into fibres after being collected from the city streets where millions of others had been thrown out.
Entrepreneur Naman Gupta came up with the idea of reprocessing them into a variety of goods, like cushions and toys.
We started with 10 grams (of fibre per day) and now we are doing 1,000 kilogrammes. Annually we are able to recycle millions of cigarette butts,’ he told Reuters from his factory on the outskirts of the Indian capital.
Additionally, his employees remove the tobacco and the outer layer of the butts, which are then converted into compost powder and recycled paper, respectively.
According to the World Health Organization, ‘almost 267 million adults in India, or 30% of the country’s adult population, use tobacco products, and metropolitan sidewalks with appallingly poor standards for sanitation are littered with butts.’
‘Thus, working here contributes to maintaining a clean environment,’ explained Poonam, a factory worker.
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