Aspiring Rag-Pickers

I always believed that the workforce that added maximum social value in India are the rag-pickers. These group of individuals sort through garbage in cities and towns across the country, sort out the non-decomposable waste which consists of plastic, metal and everything else thats not biodegradable. One might argue that there is a economic motive, to make a living, by selling these non-decomposable material to a trader and make a living (if they can manage to make a 'living' wage). Given the unemployment rates and availability of abundant labor, the rag-picking industry has flourished in our country.

What we commonly ignore is the social and environmental value created by these individuals. Its probably one profession, where they are not just carbon neutral, but probably carbon negative (click here to read more about these emerging terms). Its the only group of people in our country I can imagine to be carbon neutral. With the lack of an efficient recycling mechanism in most cities, they essentially play the most important role in ensuring that out landfills are not hyper-polluted with toxic plastics and metal.

As I was sitting in a park bench this evening, behind a line of neatly covered garbage bins (could have been mistaken for R2D2 from Star Wars), I saw a two guys walking up to these bins, opening the cover and looking for something. Given that I have never seen rag-pickers in the US, and these guys did not fit the bill in terms of looks, I was obviously puzzled. One guy found a coke can, picked it up and put it in a cover they were carrying, filled with similar plastic and metals cans.

I could think of three plausible reasons why someone here in New York would do that:

• Economic incentive. These guys were the US version of rag-pickers. Instead of depending on middle-men, most metal and plastic bottles carry a 5 cent deposit which can be claimed in redeeming the empty bottle. I would guess that for these guys, the economic incentive is negligible. They would make more money working in a restaurant
  
  
• Helping a poor person. It could be argued that they were trying to help a poor person by collecting these bottles. Again, its easier to hand out a dollar to a poor person than collecting these bottles
  
  
• Offsetting their carbon emissions. With all the talk about global warming, its not common to see people trying their best to become carbon neutral. You might be completely dependent on public transport, and never use lights during the night, but in the US, you still need heating to sleep. I see an emerging consumer market for selling individualized carbon credits. The market is big not just for companies, but even for these guys, spending their evenings sorting through garbage cans in the parks.

I see a huge market, by linking the rag-pickers in India (monetize the environmental value by converting them to carbon credits) and sell in to 'wanna be' rag-pickers in US and Europe, so that they can spend their evening peacefully drinking a beer (sorry no cans allowed!)