Jugād /dʒuːˈɡɑːd/ in colloquial Hindi stands for the flexible approach to problem solving using the limited resources at hand innovatively. In this project, Sachi Tungare looks at waste with the perspective of jugaad, utilizing them as an alternate resource by extending their lifecycle.
Sachi examined two very commonly found wastes –used flowers, an organic material and cigarette butts, an inorganic material.
In the first part, Sachi looks at the discarded floral waste from daily prayer rituals and festivals. Flowers, in the Indian culture, are an embodiment of the hopes and dreams that people lay at God’s feet. The flowers are replaced every morning. After numerous experiments, Tungare explored the possibility of having large-scale floral waste as an alternate material to the single-use plastic used in hotel amenities and toiletries.
With the cigarette butts, it is the cellulose acetate within the paper wrapper that is causing harm to the environment. Two out of every three cigarettes end up wrongly disposed of. Today cigarette butts are clogging the oceans. In this part, Tungare explored the material, right from dissecting it and treating it to be toxin-free and safe for human contact, to dissolving it and casting it in various moulds – scoping for the potential to add value to what was otherwise quite simply trash.
Sachi utilizes the culturally ingrained ideology of jugaad by changing the approach towards resources that are available in such abundance.



