Eco-Activist Brings Wheelchairs to Tabriz

Sepideh Jalali could not have predicted the response. From water and soft drink bottle tops to caps from toothpaste tubes, shampoo and every other product imaginable — people in the Tabriz area have donated 650,000 tops to her campaign. With their help, Jalali turned bottle tops into wheelchairs, a godsend for people who could not have otherwise been able to travel around town.

Sepideh Jalali, a native of Tabriz, the provincial capital of East Azarbaijan in Iran’s northwest, has a degree in political science. After she became familiar with a campaign in Turkey that used the proceeds from selling plastic caps toward building wheelchairs, she decided to try the idea in Iran.

“This campaign is active in many countries and carried out in a very organized way,” she tells IranWire. “Ever since I came across it, I have been thinking about launching the campaign in Iran. I decided to start myself. First my family and I started collecting caps, and then I told my friends about it.” The media has also picked up on her efforts, with hardliner newspaper Kayhan and Fars News Agency both covering the story.

Soon after, Jalali launched her campaign on Facebook, asking people to collect caps so that she can purchase wheelchairs for those who need them but cannot afford to buy them. She displays handmade posters in bookshops and cultural centers to appeal to those people without access to Facebook,

Currently, Jalali’s campaign has six collection points in Tabriz. “These centers help me voluntarily,” she says. “People bring tops, and then I collect them from these locations and bring them to the parking lot outside our house.”

She separates the caps, counting and packaging them up herself. In eight months, she has collected 1,000 kilos of caps, selling them for recycling and using the proceeds to buy six wheelchairs. “A ton of bottle caps means about 120 bags, each weighing around 10 kilos,” she says. “Counting and packaging these bottle caps was a difficult job. But I wanted to do this, no matter what. Thank God I succeeded.”

The price of a kilo of recyclables varies from season to season and is subject to the fluctuations of the market. Jalali can make anything from 15 US cents to about 50 cents.

In launching the campaign, she did not only think about wheelchairs and helping the disabled. She is also a committed environmental activist. “I think this campaign is worthwhile for two reasons,” she tells IranWire. “The first is that collecting these plastic caps is a big help to nature. Birds swallow these plastic caps without being aware what it will do them. Bottles are buried underground and stay there for years and years. They don’t go away.” Bringing some of them back into use through recycling, she says, means there will be fewer plastic products in landfills. “We use garbage in the best possible way,” she says. “We make something out of nothing.”

Uniting Two Groups

For Jalali, the project brings together two distinct groups. “There are those involved in protecting  nature and the environment,” she says. “They want plastic caps to be recycled. Then there are people who are not necessarily thinking about the environment but want to help disabled people by providing them with wheelchairs.” Perhaps this two-pronged appeal has been the key to the campaign’s success. Plenty of people have taken action without having to speak out about it or make a stand.

Housewives, schoolchildren in painting classes, university students, shopkeepers, government employees, construction workers, flight attendants, restaurant owners and many other have answered her call. “The most fascinating aspect is that people from all classes and with different viewpoints are coming together,” Jalali says. “Women’s Koran study groups have collected caps, but so have yoga classes and beauty salons. We always say bad things about ourselves. We always say that Iranians don’t know how to cooperate or work together. But the enthusiastic support for this campaign proved to me that none of this is true. When given the chance, people are ready to help.”

Becoming a Habit

The number of caps collected from homes is far less than what can be collected from other premises, such as restaurants or businesses. But for Jalali, going to people’s homes is crucial. “Collecting from homes is very important because, unfortunately, most people are not bothered about separating their garbage. But,” she says, “Starting with small actions, this can become a habit.”

Jalali, who is 25 years old, is determined to continue on this path for as long and far as she can. She hopes other cities will join the campaign and one day, all Iranians will collect their plastic caps to buy wheelchairs for the disabled. But her plans do not stop there. She plans to expand the campaign, separating out paper and metal from household waste — here too, something can be created out of nothing.

With the recent media attention — including admiration from hardliner editors and agencies — and huge popular support, she may well succeed. Who knows what she will achieve next?