And that is his way of spreading a little awareness among the public that the least they can do is to manage the kitchen waste they generate, which can be easily handled. “Even if you take out those two tiles covering your small courtyard, you can easily make a compost pit,” Smijith draws on the sand right where he stands and shows how little space that would take.

And where he stands right now is the Sanghumugham Beach, with his friend and staunch supporter, Shanto who is documenting Smijith’s journey with the sack so that, “he can use it to further his cause, as well as screen it wherever possible to spearhead the campaign.” Both are wearing white T-Shirts with relevant printed messages and a picture of waste been thrown out of a car. The printing was not done for free, but for Smijith, this is more than just a project. And under today’s haphazard waste management scenario in our city, Smijith could not have chosen a better time to take this up. And if you think that this young man is getting all the support needed from his college and its fraternity, you are far from the truth. “No one cares, neither the fellow students, nor the teaching fraternity. It is actually, somewhat worse in the hostel. One feels helpless.”

From a small Village in Puthur in Thrissur District where garbage is not blindly generated, Smijith decided to take up the critical issue of waste management as his final year project in Applied Arts. And the road he chose was different. He chose to catch the garbage generator red-handed, out on the road. The sack filled with waste in itself carries messages on it with drawings of garbage being callously thrown out and that too, in style, from cars!

“I have to get more materials ready for my campaign, like posters and other stuff to market this further. I am even planning to create a website so that people with similar sentiments can come together and take this forward.” One has to admit that now, as garbage is slowly enveloping the city, Smijith’s is the only figure to be seen out there with a unique idea, as a one man army, in an attempt to make at least a few, question their own conscience as they turn their homeland into a huge garbage bin.