Over the last few years I have headed to Ahmedabad’s Old City to shoot the celebration of the vibrant kite festival when locals turn their heads upwards to a sky filled with millions of kites. Here’s a cross-post from my recent contributions to the REculture blog which explores global recycling, repair, reuse and repurpose – particularly by entrepreneurs at the base of the pyramid.
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 cheaply in bulk from packaging printers and delivered to 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 vendor 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 scraps of the plastic packaging sheets. “Free!” he announced as he grinned proudly to onlookers while I photographed his ingenious dual purpose advertising ploy.
Related articles
Uttarayan Kite Festival, India (Flickr)
High Flyers of Gujarat (Guardian: Kite Maker Interview)
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