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A worker cuts lumps from a block of raw clay at a pottery workshop in the city's suburbs.The potters here craft around 6000 cups per day. Until recently it was very common, across India, to be served chai (the popular Indian sweet, milky tea) in clay cups.  These are now being superceded by plastic and tin cups. However, especially with plastic cups, there are attendant litter issues (clay cups dissolve back into the soil once broken after use while plastic doesn't degrade so harmlessly). Kolkata is one of the last major cities in the country where the use of mud chai cups is widespread, although even here their use is on the decline. There are moves to re-introduce mud cups for use by all chai vendors on the extensive Indian Railway system where chai stalls abound.