A poster campaign for my local community
SIMRAN SHANKARDASS
CAID20244257 • July 26, 2000 • Cathedral & John Connon School, Mumbai
A waste management project in 9th grade Geography got me fascinated with trash. I began to use it in art and produced a bunch of ‘beautiful trash’ paintings. But trash in Mumbai is an ugly reality. I went around gathering information from my own community and saw that efforts at recycling and waste management were half-hearted. Rampant littering, single-use plastic items, and a lack of knowledge about electronic waste disposal were causing huge problems. We had garbage hurled onshore by the sea every monsoon, clogged sewers causing flooding, the stench of garbage, and marine life in serious peril.
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I launched a campaign aimed at kids in school and young people in the local community. My visual messages in the form of cartoons, slogans, and shock-inducing images are designed to be relatable and interactive, and spark engagement and dialogue about trash among the people in my generation, that have just stopped thinking about it. Some include polls and votes (we love our Buzzfeed quizzes), as well as pop culture references. If the campaign manages to make all of us think a little more about trash, or makes us one step more aware of our management of it, I think it will have been a successful one. The subsequent pages show some of my visual messages for this campaign.
Marine Drive Bombay Every monsoon the sea spits our garbage back at us
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This is one of Everyone answered My answer the quizzes I put it and then I put up is A up in school the results
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FroDmotnh’etsWonagnna ‘I e Forever’ ( L(iv u guessed it yo
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You Fromde‘LMoeokDWo’haatn iconic Ma nt in most Gen Z eve ennial lives mill
You’re at Starbucks with your friends, waiting for your non-fat venti triple-blended extra-caffeinated light soy iced macchiato with four and a half pumps of chocolate and extra ice. The barista doesn’t give you a straw. You: Pull out the trusty resusable straw that you always carry to Starbucks Accept it, because you don’t really need a straw to drink a non-fat venti triple-blended extra-caffeinated light soy iced macchiatto with four and a half pumps of chocolate and extra ice Ask for a paper straw, which is the only kind of straw the government allows, and because paper straws make your drink taste better Ask for a paper straw but secretly think that plastic straws should never have been banned
You’re on paper napkin duty while someone else gets the car. You: Don’t take any - there are tissues in the car if anyone really needs one Remember that no one bought anything to eat, so no one needs napkins, and you don’t take any Take some to be safe, but make sure that if you don’t use them you take them home with you instead of throwing them away Take ten for you and your three friends but do it secretly because you don’t want anyone to see. Take twenty. Take the napkin holder. Take the napkins in storage too
Insist that you are given a plastic straw and throw a fit if you don’t get one
Now that your friends have convinced you to stop overthinking your choice of straw, you notice that you don’t have one of those cool cardboard things that stops you from getting burned. You: Use the cool cardboard thing that you took last time and stored for later when you didn’t end up using it Don’t take one because you don’t need it and usually wait until your coffee is cooler anyway Take one because you have no choice and actually need it you’re getting into the car immediately and will have to hold your cup in your hands Take one even though you don’t really need it and then feel guilty about it Take one immediately because it’s cool and you want it
On the way home, your friends get sick of holding their empty coffee cups and roll down the window to toss them out. You: Stop them, explaining why Stop them because you don’t mind holding the cup until you get home Stop them until you see some trash on the road that’s been swept into a pile next to an overflowing trash can, then throw the cup out onto the pile Look the other way so you don’t have to say anything. It might annoy your friends Turn it into a game. Ten points if it lands on the far side of the zebra crossing!
WHAT YOUR ANSWERS MEAN You actively think about waste management and take conscious little measures to help the environment. You’re pretty good at being environmentally friendly, but it isn’t always a conscious decision - being a little more active could help even more. You consider both necessity and trash issues when faced with a decision in your daily life. This is a good thing -
you’re doing your best to be careful. The next step is to consider some of these things before you’re in a position where you have to. You know what the environmentally friendly thing to do is but sometimes give in and do the easy thing. It’s not always easy to make choices like this, but the things that matter rarely are. Bro...
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This giant Coke can is about 5’ 7� high and made from over 350 used cans. It has an opening on the top with a revolving lid and serves as a trash can itself, with a garbage liner on the inside.
The lid
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I set this up as an installation in school for a few days with a coke crate as a stool to climb up on. I hoped by giving people a fun way to dispose of trash (and they did - lots of it), I could draw attention to both the intended use of trash cans and the recycling of everyday objects like soft drink cans. CAN COLLECTION CREDITS Cathedral students, Bar Amadeus, local clubs and restaurants. Special thanks to Isha Vazirani for 10 cans!
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WASTE MANAGEMENT INITIATIVE Cartooning and Art in the Local Community • Started a trash awareness campaign in Cathedral Senior School - 24 visual messages displayed through the year in the main quadrangle. • Invited student engagement through quizzes, polls and opinions. Posted results. • Continued campaign in other neighborhood schools, pediatricians' clinics, clubs. • Secured a monthly cartoon column in the Black & Gold Magazine (circulated to about 3500 families). • Co-opted on India First (local citizens’ forum highlighting civic issues) social media campaign – 8000 members. • Started @therealtrashtalker Instagram page – working on building up followers. • Approached the mayor of Panchgani (winner of the western India Clean Cities government contest) to use cartoons for cleanliness drive. • Spear-headed a Coke can drive among local restaurants. Created a giant Coke can installation to drive home recycling message. • Created group with juniors in school, including writers and cartoonists for project continuity. NEXT STEPS Expanding social media presence, starting a blog, addressing water management issues.
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