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Christmas 2022: Mumbaikars tell you how to make DIY trees with recycled products
Updated On: 18 December, 2022 07:31 AM IST | Mumbai | Jane Borges
Why buy a tree when you can make your own? Eco-activists and nature lovers who’ve switched to environmental-happy Christmas decor this year, tell us DIY trees require imagination and patience
The 23-ft-long tree at Bandra Band Stand is made using 10,000 plus plastic bottles. Pic/Ashish Raje
‘Residents came together to contribute bottles for our tree’
Conceptualised by Minali N Thakkar
Last week, residents of Bandra Band Stand joined hands with the Inner Wheel Club of Bombay Airport and Bandra Band Stand Residents Trust to create a 23-ft-high tree made of plastic bottles. Led by president Neelima Mashru, and designed by art curator and artist Minali N Thakkar, the installation has been made with over 10,000 bottles. “Our festivals, across communities, are big contributors of waste,” says Thakkar. “The best way to communicate this to people is by creating something larger than life. Plastics can be used wisely, and art is the best means to spread this awareness,” feels Thakkar, who has in the past made a waterfall installation—a bottle fall, as she calls it—with 40,000 bottles. A metal framework was created to hold these bottles on it. “The metal was welded at the Band Stand promenade itself,” she shares. “We used four different shades of lighting to illuminate the tree from inside... the colours keep changing.” While Mashru and team helped with the bottle collection, curious locals also extended their help. “A five-year-old has come and given us bottles; even ragpickers who were seeing us work, and for whom this is their bread and butter, handed us bottles. Everyone was taking ownership, and offering suggestions. It was delightful to see this.” Thakkar hopes that visitors take back lessons and implement it in their own housing society or neighbourhood. Mashru says that they will be sending the bottles to a recycling plant in Andheri post-Christmas. “The bottles will be segregated and sent to recyclers who make t-shirts, tiles, insulated tiffin bags and paver blocks out of these.”
‘Use eggshells and paper to make ornaments’
Conceptualised by Anik Niknao
Snowman made from tyres and a bell (left) made using egg shells
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