Plastics waste dominates the news, and the number of hours vast countries like China or economic blocs like the EU spend on finding solutions – some of them highly technical and bureaucratic – count in the millions. India – another vast country with a plastics waste problem, generating 26,000 t of it every day – has yet to get a grip on collection, let alone commercial recycling. In an extreme case, some inhabitants of Pamohi, in the Himalayan foothills of Assam state, burn the trash to keep warm during the harsh winters.

As this self-help recourse at minimum is ecologically unacceptable, innovative solutions, however small, are needed. The Akshar Foundation School, also in Assam, has found one. Here, “tuition”, payable every morning, is trash. Pupils arrive with bulky bags, filled not with heavy books or cash, but lightweight discarded plastics found by the roadside. The daily fee is 25 items.

As Akshar has only 100 pupils, the collection is literally a drop in the bucket, but teachers say it encourages responsibility – both for learning and the environment. The school even has its own small recycling centre, producing eco-bricks suitable for simple construction projects. And it gets even better: the curriculum includes lessons on installing solar panels.