‘Feed’ the whale at Marina Beach, receive a bag

A Chennai-based startup is populating the sands of Marina with “whales” and “fish” that function as reverse vending machines, dispensing a cloth bag for every PET bottle dropped in them

A whale 12 feet tall if it stood on its fluke, sits squat on the sands of the Marina Beach. It is a shape-shifter of a whale, combining the contours of a bin and a cloth-vending machine. It is both of these things rolled into one: drop a PET bottle in the bin and get a cloth bag as reward. When one drops a PET bottle in this reverse vending machine, they might appear to be feeding a whale because of the machine’s design.

Needless to say it is not a whale.

“InstaBin”, as this contraption is called, started operating since April 6, near the Marina swimming pool. Two more reverse vending machines, both designed to resemble a whales, are expected to hit the sands of the Marina next week. In addition, six fish-shaped reverse vending machines have been placed at strategic points between the Light House and Anna Memorial section of the beach.

Chennai-based startup InstaGood’s design to reward those showing civic sense at public places is drawing considerable attention both online and on the ground.

The firm came up with the idea after seeing a similar “bottle-for-bag” machine being placed at Elliot’s Beach in Besant Nagar fail on account of people dropping stones instead of PET bottles.

“Our “Meendum Manjapai” (automated machine to dispense cloth bags) machines were already at 16 locations and that is when we thought we should design an Indian version of reverse vending machine where people do not have to pay anything and concerns such as people dropping hard objects should be countered,” says Krishnaa Priyadarshini Elanchezhian, CEO, InstaGood.