Javi Sajdov
Appearances
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
So this is an open courtyard with a tin roof shed. I'm seeing sacks piled up on the left side. A poster that says what begins on our streets can end in our seas. The sacks, no surprise, are stuffed with cigarette butts, dirty and bent up from the trash bins and curbs of India.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
They have two main components, the paper that holds the whole cigarette together from the outside and the filter, which is this fibrous stuff. And when people don't finish the cigarette, sometimes the butt also contains leftover bits of tobacco. Ramanand is one of the longest-serving employees at Code Effort, and he's demonstrating the first step after collection, sorting.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
So he's picking out the mat sticks or the feathers, leaves. The paper wrapper is collected and recycled for use as mosquito repellent sticks. The tobacco is composted and distributed to local nurseries. But the focus here is the stuff inside the cigarette butt, the fibre in the filter. And once it's separated into a big pile, it's chopped up into tinier bits.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
So I'm looking down a very, very large mixer grinder. It's got a four-wing blade in it, very large. After cutting, the shortened fiber is washed in a bacterial solution to rinse off and dissolve toxins. And the fluffy white mass that comes out is now white and clean. And this wet fiber is next dried in a spinning drum. All the water is disposed of sustainably.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
The fluffy cotton type of... Yes. And from here, it's loaded into bags and taken to the homes of the village women who work with it. In a big living room with a huge carpet and a small child... who's playing with pom-poms. And there's a basket next to her with the crocheted stuffed eggplants and oranges. The little girl's name is Tanishka. She's three.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
Her seven-year-old brother Chirag is here too. And they're playing with toys and pom-poms, all made with the now cleaned and carded fibre. Their mother, Barsha, is crocheting a green yarn into what will be a stuffed pear.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
As she works, the lady of the house, Poonam, comes and sits cross-legged with her. Poonam is a code efforts pioneer.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
By this time, Poonam and Barsha are joined by five more women from the neighbourhood. I asked Poonam how she felt working with the fiber from cigarettes.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
What isn't used to make toys is turned into paper. And I saw some bookmarks and notebooks made from it. It's highly fibrous and it's very nice for ink pens. They also supply their fibre to a company that makes tree-free paper for office stationery.