Pooja Dhingra Cuts The Crap With An Alphabet Chart
Taking care of the #planet isn’t cumbersome. What it takes is a #mindful approach and a good, hard look at the #waste we’re generating. And while we read snippets of it in magazines, attend eco talks and think of adding green living to our busy list of to-dos, Pooja Dhingra’s project actually cuts to the chase and lays out 26 doable ways to #CuttheCrap.
An independent conceptualiser and graphic designer, who lives and works out of Delhi, Pooja created this graphic checklist to spread awareness because she was bothered by the way waste is segregated in her colony. The complete failure of the Indian Government’s Clean India campaign and the plight of the waste pickers nudged Pooja into her own waste management journey, which has been the basis of her Cut the Crap project.
“I decided to cut down my own waste and also convince others around me to do the same,” she explains, adding, “I realized that I was either too shy (with strangers) or too aggressive (with friends and family), and so design became my middle path to give solutions to a massive problem.”
Cut the Crap: Pooja has re-defined the alphabet chart with each letter from A to Z graphically laying out a practical step that each of us can take to help make this planet a safer, greener and richer place to live in.
If you thought A is for Apple, Pooja’s poster spells out ‘Always carry a water bottle’. B is for ‘Bleed into a menstrual cup’, C is for ‘Compost kitchen waste’, D is for ‘Discontinue disposables’ and so on. Save this poster on your laptop, share it with friends through social media or make your way through the alphabet chart, incorporating the green tips till they become second nature.
Pooja’s Cut the Crap poster has received a tremendous response, being shared, discussed and featured. “Somebody in Bangalore wanted to use it for a school presentation, while friends and family have pledged to reduce their waste,” mentions Pooja.
Initially made with the idea of keeping it purely digital (because hey, printing them out uses paper and toxic ink, which defies the idea of the whole project), Pooja is now exploring Earth-friendly ways to offer them in hard copies. “A friend from Canada and a well wisher from down South helped me find the right paper for the posters as I am getting a lot of queries for that.” She is optimistic about finding someone who can print these with natural inks.
Two other projects in her hat: Pooja’s also churning up other green ideas to get more people to adapt to fun, planet-friendly ways. One of the project is an illustrated activity book for children to help them grow their own food in their balconies. “It will be a super fun book with poems, anecdotes and interactive pages,” quips Pooja, who believes that once kids become farmers themselves, they will understand and appreciate the efforts of our farmers and understand the importance of healthy eating.
The other project is a book on sustainability that hopes to bring the old ways into fashion. She elaborates the concept, “I, like many others from our generation, grew up in a house where nothing was wasted – milk that went bad became cottage cheese, ghee residue became mithai and dinner leftovers became stuffed paranthas for breakfast.”
Collaborations: Pooja is open to collaborating with others on her various projects. From needing help in taking the Cut The Crap series to schools to funding from
schools/organizations/publishers for the Grow Your Own Food book to tips from farmers, experts and grandparents, Pooja welcomes help and support to get her projects off the ground or to wider audiences.
If you’d like to collaborate with Pooja, you can reach her at:
#cutthecrap #wastemanagement #eco #sustainability #greenliving #savetheearth #changemakers
