Raise a glass to recycling

The binoculars and cameras were following two Ruddy turnstones, the other migrants being out of range at that point of time. Those two Ruddy turnstones were gently poking around in a pile of discards, deposited by tidal action. The colours they wore matched those of the mixed garbage including partly browned floating vegetation, to a feather. They would have loved to turn a few things around and find an insect or two, but they did not. The bill of fare seemed unappetising, and that included a couple of empty liquor bottles, one of them with the brand name still pasted on it. The next day, September 16, when one had a short look-in at the patch, during the liminal time zone between an ageing afternoon and a young evening, it dawned that these migrants (as also the resident birds) “hit the bottles” regularly. Focus on a space with birds, and there was a gratuitous offer of empty liquor bottles to add zing to the frame, and eventually the photo.  Birder and environmentalist Kumaresan Chandrabose who is more acquainted with this patch than the back of his palm remarks that glass bottles, ones that once held liquor, end up on this patch in noticeable numbers often, and that these bottles are largely “runoffs” coming in from elsewhere on account of tidal action.  Glass bottles can be recycled for eternity, again and again, but they are the least recycled piece of discards. And they are not good for the sea and sea creatures in there as well as land animals such as us (those bottles, pieces of them can come back to us to our plates by way of biomagnification).  Here is a thought: any biodiversity organisation should focus on collecting these glass bottles washing up at the Estuary, aggregate and send them for recycling.