High Flying Waste
In the past I've ignored plastic kites at the annual Uttarayan Kite Festival in Ahmedabad. But this year, through my REculture-lens, I paid more careful attention and found that many of the plastic kites are made of printer's waste from a variety of packaging. Graphic designers and printers amongst you will know how much waste is created in getting prints just right – with numerous mis-registered and colour test sheets being discarded. Such sheets are bought in bulk from packaging printers and delivered to kite-making workshops in Jamalpur which specialise in the re-cultured kites.
While purists turn their noses up at them in favour of skillfully crafted paper kites – those with less money buy these plastic kites because of their lower price, relative robustness and staying power on the battlefield.
And as we've seen elsewhere, the re-culture approach doesn't stop at the product itself. I found a kite sel ler on the road-side at the popular Dilli Diwarja kite market that was selling the kites, plus had fashioned a paper-weight from an old brick wrapped in the plastic packaging sheets. "Free!" he announced as he grinned proudly to onlookers while I photographed his ingenious dual purpose advertising ploy.
