Eco Service Fairies

Rena and Agnes are a bustling duo raising our consciousness about waste in Auroville. They focus on promoting good segregation and organising a clean waste centre.

Their project started at the end of 2019 when Rena shot a documentary about EcoService, and then felt compelled to support their work. One of the things Eco-Service discovered was that too many community recycling areas were dirty with overflowing bins. After New Creation received a warning regarding this, Agnes took over responsibility for the new waste disposal site there. With the help of an amma, and after restricting opening times to one and a half hours daily, they managed to transform the situation. This experience sparked Rena and Agnes to band together to facilitate the waste disposal work elsewhere in Auroville. 

Rena and Agnes have since visited more than half of the communities in Auroville, and most of their work highlights the need to keep recycling areas clean and well organised. They distribute attractive EcoService posters that outline which items can and can’t go into each bin. They also arrange trainings for all people about waste separation, including the cleaning ammas. Kali from the EcoService has dubbed Rena and Agnes ‘fairies’ in appreciation of their supportive work, and perhaps as a nod to their collaboration with the spirit of nature, as fairies are believed to do. While Rena and Agnes operate independently from EcoService, they are in regular communication. For example, EcoService will inform them of a particular problem area with messy bins, and invite them to work their magic.

Work of EcoService

Currently in Auroville, most communities have several bins collecting different goods: paper, plastic, glass, metal, sanitary, hazardous and mixed waste. These items are picked up by the EcoService jeep. When they reach headquarters, they are then further separated into eighty-three categories. The items are sorted by hand by the workers, which is why the goods need to be clean. 

The two ‘fairies’ see it as their task to remind residents of basic recycling information saving work for the EcoService. For example,  the need to separate paper and plastic when the paper is sealed inside the plastic, and to strip all the sellotape from cardboard packages, otherwise it results in recyclable cardboard either needing to be manually separated at the EcoService, or needlessly thrown into the landfill. 

Guests are often unaware of the need to clean the food remnants off packaging waste before placing it in recycling bins. Once you have lived in Auroville a few months, you soon realise that any food or crumbs left out will attract hordes of ants. A regular battle for the duo is reminding people only to drop off items that are clean and dry, to prevent ant infestations. They have found whole bins full of ants, some with worms, and even once, a rat. They encourage regular sweeping and cleaning of the recycling sites and bins, which they both do in their respective communities.

Un-recyclables

Another feature of Agnes and Rena’s work is promoting awareness and information about non-recyclable products. Here in Auroville this includes tetrapaks and biscuit packing with different layers. They ask us to reconsider our needs for these items, given that Auroville offers its own biscuit brands with recyclable packaging. 28 % of all waste in Auroville goes to the Auroville landfill, and that is something that the duo is determined to reduce. 

Reminding us to be good citizens of Auroville 

Rena notes that she feels helpless when faced with the behaviour of Aurovilians who don’t take care of their waste. For instance, they recently found waste thrown away in Auroville which included  packaging with a name and address on it. When they approached the individual, he was apologetic and said he had sold his waste to local villagers, who in turn took the re-saleable items and then dumped the rest. Rena and Agnes ask Aurovilians not to sell recyclable waste, as EcoService can earn some critical income from selling it themselves. Their ultimate aim is that Aurovilians take care of their own waste, but till that happens, they will help remind us to clean up.

No ‘away’

It’s all too easy today to buy a glossily packaged product and never think about where it ends up. As the film The Story of Stuff pointed out years ago, there is no such place as ‘away’. In Auroville there is a heightened immediacy to this realisation as we see, and at times feel engulfed by, increasing waste in the local villages, beaches and neighbourhoods. It’s easy to not think about what happens to waste or what goes into the landfill. Yet, in Auroville it’s possible to live a lifestyle of minimal waste, and a few even manage to live closer to a zero waste lifestyle. 

Garbage is an ever-visible reminder of unconscious consumption and disposal. The EcoService ‘fairies’ remind us that – with relatively little extra awareness and work – we can create a tidy recycling area, can make sure our waste is clean, and we can buy fewer non-recyclable products. These efforts alone can significantly reduce our impact on Auroville land and its landfill, and show that it’s possible to have an abundant life with less trash in greater harmony with nature. 

See Rena’s video on the work of EcoService at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INN0jSCtIxs 

contact: [email protected]



Box:  ‘Everybody wants to save the planet but nobody wants to put the waste bin out’.

Jean Yanne