On a pavement at Elliots Beach Road, in front of a bank's ATM kiosk stands an apparatus that is a spitting image of an ATM. Illustrative guidelines displayed on this newly-sprung apparatus about how to use it ensure a visitor does not mistake it for an automatic teller machine, or worse still a CDM (cash deposit machine) when they clap eyes on it the first time around.

This is a manifestation of Greater Chennai Corporation's seemingly unceasing efforts to bring colour to regular scenery (example: aesthetically-designed view cutters around power transformers) and embellish mundane activities (example: garbage bins that come across as ATM-lookalikes).

These garbage bins have slots, actually neat hatches to push in discards -- an effective deterrent to people who play Ring Toss (throwing rings to win objects) with garbage, flinging it into the regular, open-mouthed bin from a distance, and usually missing the mark. (On a slightly tangential note, Ring Toss is a popular game at Bessie and Marina and most other well-patronised Indian beaches). According to a GCC official familiar with the development at Besant Nagar beach, 18 such bins have been parked at the beach, a good number of them gifted real estate on pavements on both sides. A few of them are placed at pavements near points where streets on the periphery of the beach meet Elliots Beach Road.

Prior to Besant Nagar beach, these bins entered the scene in T. Nagar, at the Pedestrian Plaza.

The size of the hatch and the visual guidelines displayed on the bin show what kind of waste it targets -- largely packaging that goes with eats and beverages bought at outlets in a leisure spot.

GCC officials connected with this initiative have shared images that provide a peek into these bins -- literally -- how the rear side of the bin can be opened to pull out what sits inside to gather the waste being dropped through the hatch.

Set next to this one, the regular bins come across as plain Janes. One hopes that the novelty this bin brings to the landscape deters beach-goers -- not all, but a majority of them -- from doing what they have been doing all along: littering the place, ignoring the regular, open-mouthed bins.

'ATM lookalikes' wait for garbage at Bessie