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By Sreekumar Raghavan
‘If wishes were horses, beggars would ride’: ‘ You can bring the horse mouth to water  but not make it drink’. These  proverbs may indeed have a negative tone embedded in it, but it is a fact that horses have been used in the infantry, to draw carriages to commute people and cargo and ofcourse in racing.

Now comes the news from France, that they have pioneered the use of horses in collecting rubbish and set an example for many nations to follow.  “More than 100 towns across France are employing horses  and carts to collect trash –both the ‘green’, biodegradable kind and waste suitable for recycling such as tin, cans, plastic bottles and cardboard,” according to a report by Brian Eads in the Reader’s Digest (Aug, 2011) issue.

The many advantages:

1)A horse cart leaves a much smaller carbon foot print thatn a 20-tonne truck
In 2008, a study in Beauvais, 80 km North of Paris, sponsored by National Study and SITA , a waste management and recycling company , found that the carbon foot print of a working horse is around half that of a  garbage truck.

2)The use of horse carts creates a buzz around town and increases recycling rates and thereby higher revenues for the local government

3)Fruitfully use the labour of horses that otherwise would end up with a horse butcher and hence forward to a frying pan.

Downside

Horses can’t be used every where. For example, over long distances in rural areas or serving a small number of collection points amid tower blocks.


In UK, Tameside Council displayed its two shires at the popular country show,Mottram Show on August 21 to promote the borough’s recycling message.

The Guardian, London reported in October, 2010 that for many of the towns, using horses has also served as a way of saving money, as well as raising awareness for recycling programs. The practice is also spreading to other countries around Europe, including Italy, where donkey-drawn recycling carts are being used in Sicily.

Mario Cicero, a mayor in Sicily who pioneered the use of donkeys for glass and cardboard collection in 2007 had this to say about putting asses to recycling work: . "Compared with €5,000–7,000 annual running costs for a diesel truck, an ass costs €1,000–1,500 and can live 25-30 years. A truck costs around €25,000, lasts around five years and can't reproduce," says Cicero, whose four asinelli have now produced 25 offspring, so he won't even be buying any more.