For Rajagopalan Nair, retirement from the Indian Navy wasn’t the end of the road.
The ex-Navy officer from Kerala went onto become a civil engineer, establishing his own firm, Hi Tech Bio Solutions, in Vasai, a suburban town in the Palghar district of Maharashtra, and developed India’s first portable biogas plant that consumers can use for both commercial and domestic purposes.
According to the Hindustan Times, the biogas plant generates approximately two hours of cooking gas and four kilograms of liquid manure, which one can use for farming purposes.
“This is the first portable biogas plant manufactured in India,” said the 68-year-old Nair, in a conversation with the publication.
“My aim was to introduce a system that can eliminate wet wastage produced in scores of households like vegetable and fruit peels, discarded meat, chicken and fish waste, and other forms of wet garbage. With my plant the wastage produced in the household kitchen can be converted into different types of by-products like cooking gas and liquid manure,” added the man from Kerala.
Rajagopalan Nair with his portable biogas plant. (Source: India Mart)
First tested in 2008 in Thrissur (his native place) the portable plant obtained the ISO certification earlier this year on May 22. Following certification, he began to manufacture the device in Vasai. Speaking to the publication, Nair says that conventional biogas plants sold in India emit a terrible odour, attract pests and other insects, besides other disadvantages.
How does Nair’s 350 kg fibre glass-made portable biogas plant work in comparison?
Once organic matter is deposited into the tank, the bacteria inside converts convert organic matter into methane gas through a chemical process called anaerobic digestion. A by-product of this process is called slurry, and it can be used as organic manure to grow plants.
For residents of Vasai, the local civic body is already offering a 5% subsidy in hose tax to those who install a biogas plant in their homes. They also receive an additional subsidy from the local civic body for installing a rainwater harvesting system.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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Nedumgandam, a small village in Idukki district, Kerala, is setting the bar for plastic waste management in India.
According to Manorama Online, a Kerala-based publication, the village panchayat sold 4,136.83 kg of recycled plastic waste for Rs 62,472 to the Clean Kerala Company, which is an initiative by the state government.
Thus far, the panchayat reportedly has 10,000 kg of plastic waste and 3,000 kg of organic fertiliser up for sale. Women employed through the State government’s Kudumbasree initiative go to each household, school and hospital to collect plastic waste and other non-biodegradable waste.
The local panchayat then recycles the plastic, which is then sold to the Clean Kerala Company. Following this transaction, the Clean Kerala Company sells this recycled plastic at a reasonable price to both the public works department and private companies manufacturing bitumen, who then go onto construct roads in villages. Having said that, there are now attempts to strengthen the collection process with greater cooperation from the block panchayat office.
For representational purposes. On the left you have Kudumbasree workers collecting plastic waste. On the right you have a plastic waste processing unit. (Source: Kerala government)
At the waste processing plant, the village panchayat has also received permission from the state government to install a biogas unit, which can generate power and cooking gas to locals—yet another push towards self-sustenance. For this venture, the State government will shell out Rs 10 lakh. The project itself will be carried out under the [Union] Ministry of Rural Development’s Goverdhan initiative and the Kerala government’s Suchitwa Mission.
Many local corporations, municipalities and panchayats across the state have waste processing units, and Nedumgandam is no different. According to Manorama, the biogas unit will process 300 kg of solid waste to generate cooking gas for 15 households, besides distributing electricity to nearby households.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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Despite taking multiple steps to address the plastic waste problem, residents and authorities in Bengaluru know that there is still a long way to go.
According to officials at the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), plastic comprises about 20% of the total municipal solid waste of 4,000 tonnes a day.
Back in 2016, the State government issued a blanket ban on the manufacturing, storing and distribution of single-use plastics such as carry bags, flex banners, plates, etc. Residential communities in HSR Layout, BTM layout and Malleshwaram, have also taken numerable steps in reducing plastic waste. Big businesses and restaurants have even begun employing eco-friendly/sustainable packaging options for fear of fines by civic authorities.
Fortunately, a Bengaluru-based non-profit Swachha has come up with a solution that can convert discarded plastic waste and convert it into tiles and irrigation pipes.
In association with the BBMP, Swachha has developed what they are calling ‘Re-Tile’—tiles which customers can use on pavements, as wall cladding tiles, apartment walkways and swimming pools because of their light weight. This is a project by the Eco Solutions arm of the non-profit.
Plastic waste is still a very serious problem in Bengaluru. (Source: Facebook)
Speaking to The Better India, V Ramprasad, the Project Lead, tells us that these tiles are heat resistant up to 150 degrees Celsius, fire retardant, and can carry loads up to 35 tonnes, and more importantly, are recyclable.
Oh yes, and you don’t slip on these tiles.
“Swachha Re-Tile recycled floor tiles are made of recycled Polypropylene (PP) materials and utilise a unique interlocking edge design to eliminate the need for adhesives, making installation quick and inexpensive. These tiles are non-porous, flexible and durable. Our tiles remain steady despite heavy traffic and footfall. They can be installed directly over damaged or problem floors with minimal sub-floor preparations. Moreover, they are resistant to most solvents, chemicals and abrasions, and simple to maintain, reconfigure or remove,” he says.
Moreover, Ramprasad goes on to claim that these tiles also have rainwater harvesting capabilities, are water-proof, anti-microbial, chemical and stain-resistant, besides allowing for the possibility of applying different artwork and design depending on the customers’ requirements.
Among the discarded plastics that go into the manufacturing of these tiles are shampoo bottles, cleaners, disposable restaurant containers, milk covers and water bottles. Ramprasad also breaks down the amount of plastic required to construct one unit of tile.
Tiles in different colours. (Source: Swachha)
Given below is the breakdown:
Wasteconomics
15 Disposable Food Containers= 1 Re-Tile
150 Polythene Bags= 1 Re-Tile
150 Disposable spoons= 1 Re-Tile
10-15 cosmetic bottles=1 Re-Tile
“We use the plastic given to us by the BBMP. Our research is complete, and we have moved on to manufacturing the tiles as per the requirements. Until now we have not approached any investors for funding, but are open to collaborating for research and further product development through the Institute for Resource Recovery and Management. The institute does all the research and the products after due tests are given to Swachha Eco Solutions for manufacturing,” says Ramprasad.
Back in 2014, Swachha teamed up with BBMP for collection and rehabilitation of waste pickers as dry waste collection centre operators and then decided to finish the loop for a circular economy by establishing their Swachha Eco Solutions branch.
“We at Swachha, collect source segregated wet and dry waste from door-to-door in separate bins which are stored at a designated centralised yard. The waste is then transported in separate vehicles to Swachha-operated dry waste collection, aggregation and drop off centres. The source segregated dry waste undergoes secondary segregation into plastic, paper, metal, rubber and other 30-40 categories. This tertiary segregated plastic is then sent to Swachha Eco Solutions waste processing centres for further segregation and the desired quality for recycling,” says this explainer.
The plastic waste is broken down using a grinding machine, and the flakes are loaded onto a plastic extruder to convert waste plastic into useful raw materials as granules. These reprocessed plastic granules are then loaded onto a pipe extrusion machine which produces decent quality irrigation pipes for farmers and homogeneous tiles, and hence they are recyclable.
Close up shot of the tiles.
“Only homogeneous material has been used in these tiles, unlike other tiles where fly ash, sand, and other things are mixed. This makes it recyclable. You can bring this back to us five years later, and we make something again and give it back to you,” Ramprasad told The Hindu. It takes 3-4 tonnes of plastic waste to manufacture approximately 10,000 tiles every day, he adds.
On the subject of pricing, Ramprasad told The Better India that they are looking at a range of Rs 70 to Rs 90 per square feet, depending on how much load these tiles can bear, their colour, quality and design.
So, instead of dumping or incinerating your plastic waste (which causes other health hazards), you can approach Swachha Eco Solutions and give them the opportunity to make better use of it.
Contact Swaccha Eco Solutions at +91 9900563918 or email them rajesh@swachhaecosolutions.com. Click here to see their Facebook page.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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The holiday season is drawing near, and if you’re not planning a holiday, you’re probably thinking of throwing a party for friends and family with food, games and fun.
Everything we know about celebrations, sadly, is usually disposable, single-use or wrapped in layers of plastic. Just think about the aisles of any supermarket–throwaway plastic cups and straws, balloons and streamers, even single-use fairy lights–all designed for easy and convenient clean-up and disposal, especially when you’re hosting large gatherings.
But, there are greener ways to ring in the holiday cheer; simple swaps that will reduce the garbage you generate, while making a positive impact on the planet.
So, whether it’s a costume party for kids or an all-nighter, here are some ideas for a party that’s sure to please.
1. Biodegradable plates, spoons and straws
While plastic cutlery is cute and convenient, it is among the most harmful leftovers after any party because none of it can be recycled or composted! Yet, washing up dishes after the guests leave has got to be everybody’s least favourite after-party activity.
Here’s where eco-friendly cutlery comes to your rescue. Plates made of areca leaves offer all the ease of plastic, with none of the garbage, because they are compostable.
Similarly, bamboo straws, forks and spoons make a great substitute for single-use plastics. Another affordable option is to rent reusable tableware from local vendors.
If your event is catered, inform your caterer to provide reusable or biodegradable tableware options.
No Christmas and year-end celebrations are complete without exchanging gifts with colleagues, friends and family. But after you’ve unwrapped your present, what are you left with? A pile of gift wrap–pretty, shiny, and utterly wasteful!
Whether it’s cellophane, foil or ribbon, gift wrap paper once used and torn apart, cannot be recycled. So why not do away with it completely?
If you’re not convinced, try some alternate wrapping options that are far more eco-friendly and look gorgeous, to boot. We suggest newspaper or brown paper dressed up with natural flowers from your garden, or tags upcycled from old greeting cards, or turning your kids’ artwork into unique wrapping when gifting close family and friends.
You could also use cloth bags to exchange gifts, as they can also be reused. There’s nothing quite like a personalised gift, is there?
3. Light up, naturally
Are you one who loves to light up your home every festive season with twinkling fairy lights or strings of LED bulbs? How about trying something different this party season?
Go natural and electricity-free with candles that you can use to add some warmth to your home and garden. They not only make for a cosy atmosphere but also fill your room with the fragrance of essential oils that are sure to uplift your spirits and add to the holiday cheer. You can always repurpose the used candle jars as tea-light holders.
4. Put something different on the menu
Most people like to indulge themselves during the holidays, and we’re all for bringing on the goodies! And every family has its own cherished holiday recipes, carefully preserved and passed down for generations. But, it’s fun to switch things up a bit, swapping tried-and-tested ingredients with foods that are as natural as possible–less processed and polished, hardy grains like millets, and seasonal fruits and vegetables.
These are foods that have a number of benefits to human health, while also being lighter on the earth’s resources because they are less water- and fertiliser- intensive.
5. Go natural with your decor
When you think party decor, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Balloons, streamers, tinsel and sparkling baubles? All made of shiny plastic and foil that’s designed for use-and-throw, and only add to India’s landfills.
This year, go eco-friendly as you decorate your home or office. Reusable fabric buntings or flags in bright colours add a pop of colour to any party, indoor or outdoor.
Skip the store-bought flowers and opt for earthen lamps, candles or handmade string lights to light up your space. Involve the kids to create natural wreaths or table pieces using flowers or greenery from the garden. Similarly, swap out your chemical-laden room fresheners with natural incense or essential oils.
Inform your guests ahead of time that you’re hosting a green celebration. On the day of the party, have separate bins, clearly marked, for biodegradable food waste and dry, paper and plastic waste.
In this way, even if you are unable to reduce the volume of your garbage, what you discard can be composted or recycled. Or try these biodegradable garbage bags.
It is common for parties and events of all scale to end with a lot of wasted food. But, with some timely preparation and planning, you can eliminate food waste from your celebration.
Make a shopping list, so you’re not overburdening your shopping cart or your fridge. Keep your menu small and manageable, don’t cook a ton of food! Request friends to share the task of cooking by organising a potluck.
Serve your guests with reasonable-sized portions and invite them to help themselves to seconds if they need to. Box up your leftovers well in time, so they are refrigerated while still fresh and useful.
Finally, be sure to compost all your kitchen scraps and food waste. If you don’t compost at home, you can feed leftovers such as rice, bread and meat to pets or stray animals.
If you’re hosting a large party, remember that a buffet always results in more food waste than a sit-down, serving-style event.
8. Buy gifts from local artisans or NGOs
The year-end is a time for families to come together but it’s also a time for spreading the joy with other, less fortunate members of society.
This year, as you donate your old clothes or books to charity, also consider buying gifts that will have a positive social impact by empowering a disadvantaged section of society, supporting an NGO or keeping alive a traditional Indian art or craft.
Alternatively, you could opt for presents with a smaller carbon footprint such as an upcycled or recycled product. What you will have is a unique product that your loved one is sure to appreciate for a long, long time
Here’s hoping that you end the year on a green note!
Check out these and many such eco-friendly products on The Better India Shop! Buy Now.
In an interesting exchange on Twitter, Sonam Wangchuk, the Ladakhi engineer, innovator and educator, told Anand Mahindra, Chairman of the Mahindra Group, about the fascinating story behind the Mahindra Jeep that was recently converted into a home roof at the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives (HIAL).
Earlier this week, Anand Mahindra had posted a series of photos appreciating the efforts of Wangchuk’s HIAL in not throwing the jeep into the scrap yard, but recycling it.
“A way of life at the Institute, where nothing gets discarded. Well, this will compete with our auto-shredding venture, but it’s far more creative!” said Anand Mahindra on Twitter.
In response, Wangchuk told Anand Mahindra about the “lovely story” behind the jeep.
Dear Mr @anandmahindra the Jeep you tweeted has a lovely story. It was instrumental in educational campaigns in the remotest frontiers of Ladakh… which finally took the matriculation results from 5% to 75%. It served us faithfully between 1997 to 2007 before taking new avatara. pic.twitter.com/N9ejsphOjQ
In an earlier story on the HIAL, The Better India gave a brief lowdown on how the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), a leading innovator in the education sector founded by Wangchuk, alongside the State government and local communities transformed the face of school education in India.
The state of school education in Ladakh through the 1980s and the early parts of the following decade was dire, to say the least.
The Mahindra jeep now converted into a home roof. (Source: Twitter)
As Wangchuk had himself said, “Twenty-five years ago, when I was finishing my own engineering degree, I saw that schools were a pain for everyone, but for mountain children, it was doubly painful and irrelevant. Children who spoke Ladakhi or Tibetan at home were made to sit all day memorising study material in alien languages like Urdu or English. What’s the point of learning ‘F for fans, S for ships, and T for trains’ in a high-altitude cold desert?”
“Until the mid-90s, nearly 95% of the students would fail their class X examinations.
Exasperated with the system, Sonam Wangchuk and some like-minded friends decided to do something about it and founded SECMOL in 1988. Under Operation New Hope, which was a collaborative effort by the State government, village communities and civil society to reform the government school system in Ladakh in 1994, SECMOL instigated the process of reformulating the curriculum and retraining teachers. In addition to other measures by the local administration, this initiative helped increase the pass percentage from 5% in 1996 to 75% in 2015.
However, for those who continued to struggle with the conventional education model, SECMOL started an alternative school, where students “learn by doing things” instead of limiting themselves to the confines of textbooks written by people “who have never set foot in Ladakh, and know nothing about growing barely at 12,000 feet or about making houses out of sun-dried bricks,” as Helena Norberg-Hodge (a leading Swedish sociologist and expert on Ladakh) notes. The emphasis here is on real learning, “where they engage in various innovations to solve real-life problems.”
Operation New Hope (Source: Twitter)
The discarded jeep now converted into a home roof is an abiding legacy of those efforts. There could be no better tribute to the Ladakhi people’s innovative efforts in revolutionising local school education than recycling the jeep that helped them get there.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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Waste management is a serious concern globally, and Ladakh is no exception. The region is getting crushed under the weight of non-biodegradable waste, particularly in the rural areas where there are no proper mechanisms to dispose of garbage.
Responding to this grave civic concern, the Leh district administration under Deputy Commissioner Avny Lavasa, in collaboration with the local Rural Development Department and support from the Leh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), started ‘Project Tsangda,’ an initiative towards sustainable waste management in rural and semi-rural areas of the district, on December 13, 2017.
‘Tsangda’ or ‘Stangda’ means cleanliness in the local Bothi (Ladakhi) language. The project began with the establishment of the region’s first-ever waste segregation centre in Choglamsar town, where garbage from the households and shops are collected and converted into resources rather than dumped into giant landfills that remain an eyesore.
Earlier this year on December 13, the project celebrated its first anniversary.
“It is worth mentioning that during the first year itself a total of 65,000 kg waste has been collected from the centres across Choglamsar, Nubra, Nimo and Khaltsi. Of this, 27,000 kg has been sold to scrap dealers and 17000 kg reused in making plenty of recyclable products like biofuel bricks from the discarded cardboards, egg trays and other agriculture wastes,” said the district administration.
“Similarly, paper and cloth waste were used for making decorative items, curtains, toys, cushion covers, etc. Wine/beer bottles and other broken glasses were also reused in construction of roads and buildings by agencies like [the] Public Works Department, General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF) of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and other construction companies thereby, generating a good amount of revenue for the department to run the project, besides playing a big role in health and environmental upgradation with reduction in air and water pollution,” it added.
DC Avny Lavasa at the inauguration of Project Tsangda in Choglamsar town on December 13, 2017. (Source)
Speaking to The Better India, Deputy Commissioner Avny Lavasa, said that the inspiration for the project came from the sold resource management centre (SRMC) set up in Bishnah, Jammu district.
“There are many waste management models and initiatives established across the country. On reading about the SRMC in Bishnah, I sent the Rural Development Department (RDD) to assess it. However, we modified the model based on local needs. We took our inspiration from there. Unfortunately, the SRMC there is no longer functioning,” she says.
Later on, in the article, we will explore why the model in Leh district has succeeded while the SRMC in Bishnah fell apart.
Project Tsangda is essentially for rural and semi-rural areas of Leh district. For urban centres, there is a different system in place. Usually in urban areas, through municipal corporations, committees and councils, there is a lot of money coming in for these projects. These municipal committees have greater resources.
“Naturally, we thought that rural areas are being left out. We started with areas on the fringe of Leh district’s urban centres. These areas suffer the same waste problem as urban centres but don’t have the necessary resources to manage it,” says DC Lavasa.
Why does Leh district desperately need an efficient solid waste management system?
During the tourist season (May-August), Leh city itself collects 16-18 tonnes of waste, while in the lean season (November-February) it comes down drastically to 3-4 tonnes. While Leh city has the means to tackle its own waste emerging from greater tourist footfall, surrounding towns like Choglamsar (the second most populous town after Leh) don’t have the necessary resources.
The volume of local waste generation is on the rise. More importantly, the delicate ecology of Ladakh is such that if we don’t address this problem today, it will reach the point of no return.
The key agency overseeing this initiative is the RDD. They’ve done everything from running awareness campaigns, building infrastructure, operating the project, collecting user fees, tying up with NGOs or private citizens to reuse the waste. Having said that, there are certain areas where the district administration needs certain coordination and assistance from other departments.
Like any other basic waste management system, the first stage is primary segregation at the level of household or shopkeeper. It’s the standard model of having two dustbins—one for dry waste and other for wet waste. Ladakh, fortunately, does not generate too much wet waste—people traditionally use it for their own household requirements, or they feed it to their cattle.
However, there is a lot of dry waste generated. Once segregation happens at the primary level, the district administration sends out a small truck to collect the waste from a scheduled locality.
“There are days designated for the collection of dry waste and wet waste from particular areas. From the market, the collection takes place every day. The trucks then deliver the dry waste to the collection centres where secondary segregation takes place. At these centres, the dry waste is further segregated into 20-22 categories depending on which area we are talking about. Each category has a different re-use method or means of disposal. The four centres (Choglamsar, Nubra, Nimo and Khaltsi) function independently of each other. Every centre has a different catchment area, and they all adhere to different schedules,” says DC Lavasa.
Recycled products. (Source: District Administration, Leh)
Unlike the SRMC in Bishnah, Jammu, this waste management has succeeded thus far thanks to the intense participation of locals. The reason why the SRMC in Jammu district had to be discontinued because locals were unwilling to pay a user fee.
“When government resources are put into any initiative, it is usually to create an asset. So, you may create infrastructure, but how do you operate and sustain it? In the context of rural areas in Leh district, this project is working because locals are willing to pay a user fee. I give full credit to the local people for understanding what’s happening here. Unless they believe in the benefits of a particular project, they will not pay. Locals segregate really well. Usually, we receive dry waste that is barely 10% incorrect or inadvertently mixed with other waste at the primary segregation stage. So, the dry waste collected is 90% correct, which is very commendable,” adds DC Lavasa.
Locals working at the waste segregation centre in Choglamsar. (Source: District Administration Leh)
The user fee that locals pay usually goes towards paying the fuel costs for trucks that go out to collect waste. Authorities cannot send people out in rickshaws because of the cold weather. User fee also goes into paying the salary of those working at these segregation centres. Those working at the segregation centres are locals. “The whole model is very decentralised. In a way, everyone is benefitting from it. Households pay Rs 50 per month, while shopkeepers pay Rs 200,” she adds.
“Today, Project Tsangda is a huge success. It’s an invaluable gift for the people of Leh district. Now the onus is on all of us to carry forward this dream project of our worthy Deputy Commissioner in making Leh one of the cleanest districts of the country,” says Thinless Dorje, a radio operator with the local Jammu and Kashmir Police administration. Meanwhile, Tsewang Paljor, assistant director of the Cultural Academy in Leh claims that the initiative is “working very well” in his village of Nyemo.
“With increasing tourism, waste management has become a critical issue. Thanks to the administration, we finally have a system in place that not only includes locals but also works. Yes, there are improvements that are needed and loopholes that need to be fixed, but this is a well thought out first step,” says Rinchen Wangmo, a local shopkeeper and beneficiary of this initiative.
Locals working at the waste segregation centre in Choglamsar. (Source: District Administration Leh)
“Yes, I think it’s making a difference. At least it’s making the people aware of waste segregation and recycling. These are important lessons we need to learn,” says local journalist Tsewang Rigzin.
What makes this initiative particularly successful is that locals feel they have a major stake in it. People from the same catchment area of these segregation centres work there. This is rather unusual for the people of Ladakh today because such work isn’t usually done by locals. This sort of work isn’t looked upon very favourably by locals. But it’s another achievement of the district administration that they’ve broken this mindset of doing work pertaining to waste management.
Where does the administration go from here?
“First, we are expanding the catchment area of each centre. For example, the centre in Nubra Valley was earlier covering just the village of Diskit. We are now expanding to Hunder (sand dunes where tourists take rides on the unique Bactrian camels), the main area where all the tourist camps are stationed. Second, we are spending too much on dustbins. What we are trying to do is use local woven baskets made of straw and turn them into dustbins. Third, include more people in the waste segregation process. Finally, we will use the plastic waste into making roads in the coming working season, an initiative that has been taken up multiple administrations across India,” says DC Lavasa.
Speaking to family, friends and relatives back home, there is a sense that Project Tsangda has brought about visible change to the region. Yes, there are a lot of improvements to made and loopholes fixed. For example, shopkeepers want further control over the process of secondary segregation, while treating something as innocuous as dog excreta remains a problem.
DC Avny Lavasa
Having said that, this is the first step against the rising tide of ecological disaster in the region brought about by excessive garbage.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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In the coming decade, the water crisis in India is expected to hit critical levels.
According to the Niti Aayog, by 2030, the country could face its ‘worst’ water crisis in history with the demand for potable water rising above supply.
Nearly 40% of India’s water supply comes from groundwater resources, that are being depleted at “unsustainable rates.” The government think-tank report also states that 70% of India’s water supply is “contaminated.” This problem is particularly acute in the cities like Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru.
One solution posited by authorities is the recycling and reuse of sewage water, which often goes to waste. Many cities have already taken measures to address these concerns.
Nagpur, however, is taking matters to another level.
According to this Times of India report, it will become the first city in India to recycle more than 90% of the sewage water generated by its residents and businesses. At present, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is on the cusp of raising the capacity of its sewage treatment plants (STPs) to recycle 480 million litres of the total 525 million litres per day of sewage it generates.
For representational purposes only. (Source: Twitter)
It has already received a commitment from the government-run National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) to procure 150 million litres per day (MLD) of treated sewage water.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (Mahagenco) intends to procure 190 million litres per day of treated sewage water for its thermal power stations in Koradi and Khaparkheda.
The expectation here is that the NMC will seek to recuperate the cost of treating all that sewage from selling the resultant treated water to the NTPC and Mahagenco.
“NMC was the first treat and reuse 130 MLD sewage three years ago. All this could happen since thermal power stations are situated near the city. Also, the central and state government made it mandatory for thermal power stations and industrial units to buy treated sewage from urban local bodies situated within a radius of 50 km,” an official told the national publication.
Other cities can definitely look to take a cue from the NMC.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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An endeavour that began as the CSR initiative of a spice-manufacturing brand has resulted in helping over 900 farmers and 1500 students rethink waste management strategies.
Anand Chordia, the Director of Suhana Spices, a popular spice brand, has started India’s first Waste Management Park in Pune.
He has done this with the aim of bringing together sustainability and urban farming with the collective goal of managing waste at its source.
Suhana started as a small venture in 1962, by Hukmichand Chordia and his wife, Kamalbai, who were based in Rajasthan.
Anand Chordia. Courtesy: Chetna Sharma.
The couple was living a hand-to-mouth existence. In order to earn more money, they decided to produce a small line of home-made spices. Little did they know that their tiny venture would transform into a flourishing business, and become a household name in India and even be exported to 21 countries.
Anand, who has a Masters degree in Food Technology, became the Director of the company in 2004. Among the many things he observed after taking charge, was the adverse impact of their factories on the environment.
He realised that since the business had grown to cater to a massive clientele, the manufacturing process led to tonnes of waste being generated every day.
There was an urgent need to manage it efficiently.
Courtesy: Chetna Sharma.
Speaking to The Better India, Chordia said, “We initiated a process where we studied the premises, conducted a waste audit, produced a waste map and identified the type and amount of waste—organic or inorganic—generated from all the units of our company. We even studied the waste in a technical manner. After consulting and receiving guidance from experts in this area, we created a treatment plan to reuse, recycle and upcycle each type of waste. Through all these consistent efforts of three (2014 -2017) years, we found concrete results.”
But that wasn’t enough. Taking these steps on an organisational level would have helped the company to become eco-conscious, but there was so much more they could do by simply sharing their knowledge and experience.
This thought led to the establishment of the Eco-Factory Foundation (TEFF), a non-profit that works towards sustainable living of rural and urban India.
Their motive was simple—turn waste into wealth.
Courtesy: Chetna Sharma.
What sets TEFF apart from the other NGOs working towards the same cause is their belief that food can be grown anywhere. Anyone, anywhere can become a farmer, but the only thing stopping aspirants is inadequate knowledge about agriculture.
Speaking to The Times of India, Chordia had said, “Every piece of land can be utilised to make green spaces, be it in houses, colleges, offices or societies. With compact spaces in cities, one can opt for urban farming.”
With the same vision of helping the urban citizens take up farming or gardening in the space that was available to them, TEFF started a Waste Management Park in June 2017. Since then, they have visited various college campuses in Pune and involve the students in their efforts to spread awareness about efficient waste management.
This is where Chordia’s aim to share eco-solutions that managed waste in their factory with other citizens were realised.
Courtesy: Chetna Sharma.
“Through the waste management park we educate citizens about the effective management of waste and direct them towards a 360-degree approach (waste to wealth and waste to health)” he informs TBI. “We have recently trained more than 200 students and almost 50 IT professionals on effective management of waste through urban gardening and farming on their sites,” he adds.
How do they do this?
Well, the waste management park brings together different methodologies invented and utilised by various NGOs and showcases them on one platform.
That way, visitors can see the waste they produce, the space they have and the resources at their disposal, and decide the method that works for them.
By adopting the traditional farming methods used in rural India for an urban landscape and introducing traditional farmers to modern methods of agriculture, TEFF ensures that it empowers both stakeholders.
“Through Sustainable Farming Skill Development and Rural Entrepreneurship Centre, TEFF has trained more than 900 farmers about different techniques of low cost—sustainable, chemical-free, organic farming techniques.
Courtesy: Chetna Sharma.
We have also initiated a first-of-its-kind program about ‘Edible landscaping at campus level’ in India. Through this, we started training students and citizens about urban gardening and farming practices. After this success, we collaborated with many campuses in Pune to initiate a similar program. This year, TEFF took a step ahead towards starting a training program on urban gardening and farming by conducting an event at an IT firm to inculcate those simple methods of waste management in urban gardening and farming,” Chordia tells us.
Chordia mentions that many farmers have approached TEFF to learn organic and sustainable farming practices, and some of them have also become suppliers for Suhana Spices.
“I do not recommend that farmers change their practices overnight; they should make it a gradual experience. The idea is to teach them to incorporate it in their lifestyle, not just as farming technique.”
An initiative that began at an organisational level was gradually replicated in several schools, college and workplaces in Pune. The 1500 students and professionals trained by TEFF are now implementing the methods in their own capacity
TEFF has taken steps towards sustainable waste management in a way that undoubtedly promises a larger impact in the near future.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
Feature image courtesy: Chetna Sharma.
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Walk into any railway station around the country, and you are sure to find garbage strewn all around the premises.
As the second biggest railway network in Asia with 4500 stations, which cater to over 30 million commuters every day besides transporting 2.8 million tonnes of freight, it’s no surprise that waste management remains a serious concern for the Indian Railways.
However, the New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS) is showing the way forward when it comes to waste management.
Working alongside the Safai Sena, it has adopted simple waste management strategies of composting, recycling and garbage reduction strategies.
For the uninitiated, the Safai Sena is a registered association of waste pickers, doorstep waste collectors, itinerant and other small buyers, small junk dealers, and other types of recyclers.
They have also teamed up with Chintan, a non-profit aiming to minimise the waste that ends up giant landfills in and around the city.
“The project started in 2010 as a public-private partnership between Northern Railways and waste pickers from the informal sector. It’s a win-win scenario for the NDLS since waste pickers collect all the waste from trains that have catering, and from dustbins,” says Chitra Mukherjee, Head, Advocacy and Policy at Chintan, in a conversation with The Better India.
Once a train arrives at a platform and parks for a few minutes, waste pickers from the Safai Sena are expected to collect all the trash, clean and empty the dustbins of platforms before they begin to overflow and line them up with a garbage bags at all times. Waste is taken to a material recovery facility at the station where it is segregated into different categories and sent for recycling.
Here are five things other railway stations can learn from the NDLS:
1) Train and incentivise waste pickers to distinguish between wet and dry waste.
For every material that is successfully recycled or sold, workers at the Safai Sena earn a share of the revenue. This model incentivises them to segregate all the waste they gather.
According to the Secretary of the Safai Sena, Jai Prakash Choudhary the association collects revenue running into lakhs every month from all four railway stations in the national capital (Anand Vihar, Nizamuddin and Old Delhi). Revenue earned from this venture goes into paying wastepickers and also buying necessary protective gear for them.
2) Establish a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) equipped to handle both dry and wet waste.
In New Delhi, the MRF is run by the Safai Sena with assistance from Chintan, which set it up and now ensures quality control and monitoring. Here the waste is segregated into 12 different categories before it is sent for recycling purposes.
“The uneaten rotis, 10-12 kgs/day, are fed to cows. Feeding is undertaken as a priority over composting, as it is better utilised. Only waste that cannot be treated, such as chicken gravy or plastic bags containing filthy items are taken away to the landfills,” says the book ‘State of Waste in India: Eighteen Years after the First National Rules’ published by the Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group.
3) Compost wet waste using Organic Waste Composter and aerobic pit compositing.
Compost is a rich source of organic matter, which plays an important role in sustaining soil fertility. Wet food waste is also composted in situ, and over 500 kgs/month of compost is given free to the railways.
Safai Sena workers collecting garbage from the New Delhi Railway Station. (Source: Safai Sena)
4) Recycle other waste material like Tetra-packs, tissue paper. There is also a directive to ensure that these items are dismantled to prevent reuse and protect passenger health.
5) Collect data, maintain it under close scrutiny and submit quarterly reports. This step allows the Safai Sena and Chintan to keep track of all their activities.
“As a result, the Railways have been able to ensure that out of the four tons of total waste collected per day at the NDLS, over 3.25 tons of waste is recycled; 2.5 tons is dry waste, and 0.75 tons is wet waste which is composted in situ,” says the book.
“Over four tonnes of waste are diverted every day from landfills through dry waste recycling and wet waste composting. It’s a non-financial transaction between Safai Sena and NDRS. Further it is self-sustainable, provides safe, secure and stable livelihoods to over 100 informal waste pickers. It also proves that the NDLS can take care of its waste in a sustainable manner which is scalable and replicable,” says Chitra Mukherjee, speaking to The Better India.
Yes, the NDLS isn’t the cleanest railway station, but thanks to the intervention of the Safai Sena and non-profits like Chintan, the situation on the ground has not merely witnessed discernible progress but also ensured that all the waste generated isn’t thrown away.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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The problems of garbage and waste disposal have reached a crisis in most cities. Municipal bodies around the country are struggling with the increase in the waste generated and the costs of collecting and transporting it.
While there is a lot of conversation around decentralised waste management, there are a number of reasons it hasn’t taken off.
From a paucity of public land to the opposition of residents who have a “not in my backyard” mentality, to the fact that most of these solutions envision composting at a scale which—beyond the operational challenges—has low financial viability.
Traditional bio-gas plants have also had limited success because of the primitive technologies and operational inefficiency. While a lot of the focus on waste has rightly been around plastics and the damage they cause, effective solutions for wet-waste management make it easy to handle dry waste too.
Having said that, I believe that managing waste in a decentralised fashion is the only sustainable way forward. Financially, it’s going to be impossible to keep transporting garbage to landfills that are 100 km away, not to mention the moral and environmental implications of dump sites near villages on the outer peripheries of cities.
This is where educational institutions can play a vital role.
Most of these institutes have a large land area, fully residential campuses, central kitchens, consume an immense amount of power and are now situated in densely populated localities—prime examples being campuses like IIM Bangalore and IIT Bombay.
Their unique characteristics make them an attractive hub in a radically decentralised waste management model leveraging a 2-stage Anaerobic Digestion.
I can imagine a sense of incredulity in the readers who are wondering if I am actually suggesting that waste be dumped in these beautiful campuses. Before I answer that, it’s important that I highlight some of the recent advancements in the field of Anaerobic Digestion and explain the proposed model in more detail.
Companies like GPS Renewables have completely reinvented traditional biogas plants, producing efficiencies in the range of 70 kg of LPG-equivalent per tonne of waste, with water footprints that are 1/10th of the traditional plants.
Most importantly, they have become highly reliable systems, thanks to remote data monitoring and predictive analytics—a far cry from the days of “gobar gas” plants.
This still doesn’t solve the problem of organic waste management for bulk waste generators like apartment complexes, where there is limited waste generated at a per apartment level, little use for the gas generated, and limited land available, making investments in full-fledged biogas plants a non-starter.
While composting is a good solution, it tends to be operationally challenging and unviable for complexes which have more than 50 apartments.
This is where new inventions like the standalone Anaerobic Composters (AC) of GPS Renewables come in, which, in a world-first, has created a 2 stage bio-gas plant that’s spread over a geographical area like a hub and spoke.
These, placed at apartment complexes, convert organic waste into stable homogeneous acidified slurry.
The key advantage of this is that the ACs need to be drained once in a few days, massively reducing the cost of logistics while solving the usual issues of smell, flies, and rodents, if organic waste is not collected every day.
A dedicated vehicle transports this from the apartments (the spokes) to a central hub (the educational institutes, in this case).
The operations would look no different from the ubiquitous water tanker and the central hub, which unlike what images of a “central waste processing facility” conjure, will look like this as there is no raw-waste handling.
Actual image from site of a central Gas Generating Unit in Bangalore (Hub/GGU)
There is no waste being dumped in any of these campuses or creation of sore spots, with processed slurry transported in fully enclosed tankers and pumped directly into the central unit, with no leaks, smells or other commonly perceived issues with central waste handling.
These operations can be limited to 5-10 km from the hub and yet have a massive impact on both sides, given the populations served.
Campuses like IIM Bangalore and IIT Bombay have already adopted modern biogas solutions like BioUrja to replace their internal LPG requirements.
IIT-B Feeder Apartments
Today, IIM Bangalore meets 25 percent of its LPG requirements using this reactor, and IIT Bombay converts 25 per cent of their eight tonnes of daily waste into LPG-equivalent gas, meeting 15 percent of their requirements.
While that’s a commendable first step, by being a receiving hub in these prime locations of Bannerghatta and Powai, and not being limited by the amount of waste generated internally, they have the opportunity to be 100 per cent LPG-free, have excess gas which can be converted into electricity, reduce their financial burden (IITB alone spends Rs 33 crore per annum on electricity bills) and carbon footprint while mitigating 50-200 tonnes of organic waste from localities around its campus per day.
The financial and environmental implications of these are huge as summarised below:
By earmarking just one per cent of their land area and investments that can even be funded by well-heeled alumni, these campuses can lead the way in creating a sustainable future for themselves.
More importantly, they will help transform entire wards where they are located, giving a whole new dimension to the tag of “Institute of national importance”.
These campuses have only been taken as illustrative examples. There are 138 institutes of national importance in this country, and hundreds more that may meet characteristics that are conducive to being a vital cog in this proposed approach to decentralised waste management.
Stringent enforcement of Municipal Solid Waste management rules by the states are vital for solutions like ACs to be adopted widely by apartments and other bulk waste generators. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy currently considers Solar and Wind for meeting renewable energy targets and the Paris Agreement commitments. A realisation of the potential that organic waste handled in this manner holds and a push for the adoption of the same by the Ministry could give quite a fillip to this model.
Toxic clouds fill the air as tall flames engulf large stretches of agricultural land, turning everything into ashes and smoke.
This jarring image is common in several parts of North India. Known as stubble burning, it is an agricultural practice widely used to get rid of waste.
A rising concern for environmentalists as well as the government, efforts to stop the practice have not yet received the desired result.
However, a sexagenarian based out of New Delhi might just have a sustainable answer. Her solution: transform the waste into tasty wealth by growing mushrooms!
An erstwhile educationist, 62-year-old Geeta Arunachalam has devised easy methods to use agricultural waste to cultivate and harvest one of the most expensive foods in the Indian market.
Speaking to The Better India, she explains the process of waste management.
“Essentially, stubble burning involves setting fire to the straw stubble and other agricultural waste that remains after harvesting the grains. However, instead of burning the waste, one can get rid of it by using it to grow mushrooms. In fact, oyster mushrooms, one of the lesser-known varieties are rich in nutrients and grow very well with leftover straw,” says Geeta.
She adds that the lack of knowledge about mushrooms, especially oyster mushrooms, makes it even more expensive.
A quick search on the internet reveals that a kilo of Oyster mushrooms falls within the range of Rs 400 to 600, which is comparatively more expensive than button mushrooms, which are approx Rs 250 per kilo.
“Compared to the common variety of button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms taste even better and are rich in protein content, as well as minerals, vitamins and amino acids (like tryptophan and lysine),” Geeta continues.
Over the past 12 years, she has trained hundreds of individuals to grow mushrooms in limited spaces.
A retired school principal, Geeta Arunachalam found her calling in 2007 when she kickstarted her project ‘Taste from Waste’. It is a crash course on growing mushrooms, recognised by the Ministry of Environment.
“I was working in the Mycology division of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in 1982 when I was exposed to the wonders of mushrooms. But, I couldn’t pursue it then due to work and family commitments,” she shares.
Yet, in the midst of her job as a biology teacher and then a Principal, this passionate environmentalist continued to push her students to be more aware. Through tree plantation drives, waste recycling projects as well as do-it-yourself guidance, she advocated cultivating mushrooms in small kitchen gardens.
What began as a part-time initiative grew into a substantial purpose after retirement.
“After my retirement in 2016, I could fully concentrate on my gardening and especially, my interest in mushrooms. To show how they can be grown in the smallest of spaces in urban and semi-urban areas, I grew both oyster and button mushrooms in a desert cooler,” she said.
Till date, she has conducted individual and group sessions in more than 100 schools and 50 gardening groups and NGOs in and around Delhi.
As opposed to the common belief that oyster mushrooms can only grow in higher altitudes or cooler cities like Bengaluru with temperatures between 10 to 30 degrees Celsius, her methods make it possible for the mycelium to sprout and grow, in the extremes of the North as well.
She speaks about her eventual goal to expand the growth of mushrooms in both urban and rural areas of India, especially North India.
She says, “Several village co-operatives run by rural women can grow mushrooms by building small sheds near the fields where the stubble is abundant. As per the process, the walls of the shed can be built out of straw blocks and then smeared with a coating of clay and cow dung, and then covered with burlap sacking. The wall needs to be regularly sprinkled with water to maintain the ideal humidity level between 50 to 70 per cent. These walls also help in keeping the shed insulated against extreme temperatures, thus allowing the mushrooms inside to flourish.”
Once the shed is built, the next step is to grow the mushrooms by setting up the spawn: the grain-mycelium mixture from which they eventually grow.
Mushrooms grown by Geeta’s students
“For this, you need 5 kilograms of well-dried and yellow straw and spawn measured to a weight ratio of 2% in comparison to the straw. The straw then needs to be cut into strips that are 4-5 inches long, washed and dried. Make sure that the straw does not have a rotted stalk and that it is mildly damp. Then, the next step is to prepare the container or receptacle using a number of waste materials like garbage poly bags, jute sacks, perforated plastic colanders, a hollow log or simple gardening net. The receptacle is then disinfected using a solution made of 2% formalin and punched with half-inch holes for aeration.”
The next process, she says, involves thoroughly sprinkling the spawn over the straw. Available at Rs 100 per kilo, only 10 gm of spawn is required for a 5-kilo bundle of straw.
“Once the spawn is sprinkled properly, the sack or receptacle needs to be tied at the top and suspended. It will take around 25-30 days for the first set of mushrooms to harvest. The next harvest will follow after 10 to 14 days,” says Geeta.
According to her, the advantage of using straw in the process ensures that every entity is utilised, without wastage. Even the decomposed straw used for growing mushrooms can later be used as a nutritious compost for the remaining plants.
A passionate home gardener, Geeta hopes that more people are made aware of the wonder of growing mushrooms, making them a mainstream food, not only contributing to a healthier diet but also a healthier environment.
“Nature has solutions to most of our problems, but one needs to look close and embrace them. Growing mushrooms is one such unwonted experience, which can yield both health and money for the country,” she concludes.
Her effort to reintroduce the meaty ball of wonder to India’s rural and urban women is indeed an exemplary initiative.
Poonam Bir Kasturi is a true pioneer. Back in April 2006, the Bengaluru-based industrial designer and social entrepreneur set up Daily Dump, which is in the business of changing citizen mindsets towards waste management in urban spaces.
With their marquee product, a tall cylindrical-shaped composter made of terracotta, Daily Dump has made waste composting at home a ‘cool’ endeavour.
The composter not only lessens the load on public agencies dealing with garbage but also reduces the emission of methane gas. It is fun, simple and saves the planet. What more do you want?
“I’m a trained industrial designer from NID, Ahmedabad. After I graduated in 1984, I worked in a small scale manufacturing company and then set up a craft-based design company called ‘Industree.’ I was also a founding faculty at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bengaluru,” says Poonam, in a conversation with The Better India.
Born and raised in Bengaluru, Poonam always wanted to find ways through which one could utilise design to help communities solve their burgeoning waste problem.
As the city was growing bigger by the day and lifestyles were changing, she realised that waste was going to become a major civic concern.
“I think design is a potent tool. So, that’s why I started Daily Dump,” she says.
How does the composter work?
The stack composter, which fits into your balcony easily, is quite simple to use. It has three compartments. You put your waste into the composter and cover it with a remix powder—also sold by Daily Dump. That’s all you need to do daily.
“Compositing is a natural process. The chemistry is that if there is enough carbon, which comes from the remix powder, and enough oxygen, which is why the terracotta composter has holes, you do not generate any bad odour. Nearly 60% of your dustbin is made up of organic waste. So, if you keep 60% of this waste inside the vicinity of your house, the public infrastructure isn’t under too much stress. Organic waste in landfills creates methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas. With compositing, you avoid this emission. You also create nutrition for the soil,” claims Poonam.
In other words, the remix powder is light and airy, creating plenty of gaps in the compost pile. This, along with the holes in the outer surface of Daily Dump composters, keeps the oxygen flowing—which eliminates the need to stir and stops stinky odours from forming.
What about those residents, who don’t have a garden?
Well, they can put the collected compost in front of a tree in the park or a street located opposite your place of residence. That’s also an excellent way to forge a connection with nature, right?
Today, Daily Dump operates in 17 Indian cities, the USA and Dubai. This brand and service provider has managed all this outreach through word of mouth.
“We opened the market of home composting singlehandedly,” claims Poonam.
What is the secret, though?
“It’s about changing mindsets. People must get over their fear of composting because everyone feels that it takes a lot of time and effort, which are both untrue. It does not even require high maintenance. Even if you’re out of town, you don’t have to worry about the composter,” says Poonam.
This is at the heart of what drove her to become a pioneer in urban waste management, propagating the gospel of composting organic waste within the four corners of your house.
“Everybody told me it wouldn’t work. Conversations around waste management would invariably veer towards caste prejudice, and finally, nobody wanted to keep waste in their homes—a mindset prevalent even today. But I had courage and believed that it was possible,” she says.
“Once people start understanding the world a little more, they want to contribute. So, my job was to make it fun and easy. Even after 13 years, my message to people remains that composting is easy, fun and you feel good about it,” she adds.
Before launching the composter, Poonam and her team did a lot of testing, putting out rough prototypes in the market and inviting feedback.
Following this, they tweaked these prototypes to make it viable for the average urban consumer.
“I sold my first composter for Rs 150 nearly 13 years ago in Bengaluru. People had never considered composting as an alternative to waste management. Even the government didn’t think it was possible. We defined all the different problem statements and then articulated our objectives. We wanted to convert all these naysayers into believers. We had to convince them by providing good answers for their concerns,” says Poonam.
People often say that composting isn’t ‘my job’. The standard narrative against it is that ‘I’m paying taxes, why should I do this work?’
Since the endeavour requires individuals to touch waste, Daily Dump had to make composting into a ‘cool’ activity, and convince people that it wasn’t time-consuming.
Source: Daily Dump
“Many had predicted that there would be a bad smell in the area, flies would constantly hover and their whole family could fall sick. On the contrary, customers write to us saying that because of composting, they can manage the waste in their neighbourhood,” informs Poonam.
Another important facet of their work was to ensure that the composter was aesthetically pleasing.
“We want people to keep these terracotta composters in their balcony, show it to their friends and be proud of owning them,” she says.
At its very essence, Daily Dump has attempted to design a simple prototype, which allows people to participate, get involved and feel that they can take ownership of the process.
The composters are made by potter communities from all over the country—Madurai in Tamil Nadu, Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Dhubri in Assam.
“We visited these potter communities individually. As a consequence of our work with one cluster in Andhra Pradesh (Madanapalle), the state government has recently opened a Rs 2 crore common soil processing plant. The minute you get people to increase in their livelihood, there is a ripple effect all over the area,” she says.
Source: Daily Dump
Another critical element of Daily Dump’s design approach is how accessible it is for the public. The designs are ‘open source’, so individuals in other locations can replicate, adapt, build on, sell and use – for wide and rapid propagation of the idea. There is a licence fee and no one pays that—free copy cats abound.
“The visuals we made many years ago are being copied by other waste management concerns, colleges, and communities, particularly in South America. It’s interesting to see how our work has gone forward,” she says.
What’s been particularly amazing about this journey thus far is how Poonam has maintained this endeavour as a viable business.
Initially, she spent money out of her own pocket before receiving some impact funding five years ago–a minimal amount.
Today, their revenue comes from their sales of not just the composter, but all the other products associated with the process.
Only about a decade ago, conversations surrounding waste segregation and composting were limited to niche segments of society.
Today, governments and municipalities are instituting laws, rules and regulations around it. That’s how far we have come.
Somewhere along the line, we must thank Poonam for making this happen.
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What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you picture a village?
An open area with lush greenery, houses made of bamboo and mud and lungful of fresh air.
The reality, however, is entirely different most of the times. Lack of awareness regarding hygienic habits, public cleanliness and garbage disposal cause not only health problems but is also detrimental to living a better lifestyle. The story was no different in Ambapur village, located 10 kilometres from Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
Up until September 2018, ponds were overflowing with garbage, toxic, smog-choked air, children were frequently falling ill, and animals were gasping to breathe after consuming plastic.
With no formal system of waste management in place, the village comprising over 500 families, was slowly drowning in its filth. Luckily, a group of college students from LDRP Institute of Technology and Research in Gandhinagar, who visited the village last year for a clean-up drive, noticed this plight.
Through a college project, we had conducted a couple of clean-up drives in the village. Even though we completed our task, something was incomplete. To enrich the beauty of the village, we even started the VAVO (which means ‘to sow’ in Gujarati) project and planted trees, Deep Bhuva, one of the college students, tells The Better India (TBI).
After spending a couple of weeks in the village, Deep saw how the mountains of waste were affecting the environment, and consequently people’s health. But with lack expertise or experience in the field, there was nothing much he could do.
Fortunately, it was during the same time when he came in contact with Kinjal Shethia, Founder of Mumbai-based “Need Box Foundation.” The NGO has worked in the area of waste management in the past.
Together with Kinjal and his team of friends, Deep kick-started a programme to solve the problem of garbage in Ambapur in September last year.
Before and after image of Ambapur village
While volunteers from VAVO focused on educating the people, Kinjal and her foundation started a fundraising campaign online.
“From our past experiences, I can say that funds are critical when it comes to executing a project. So, we started a campaign online. It is an on-going campaign as we also need money to sustain the project,” says Kinjal.
Like every project undertaken for long-term impact, this one too began with a massive awareness drive. The team took the Gram Panchayat committee into confidence to ensure that people took ‘outsiders’ seriously.
College students and Mumbai-based NGO introduced formal waste management system in Ambapur
Recalling their first interaction with the locals, Kinjal says, “In a scenario where you are disturbing people’s comfort zone, usually one expects a backlash. However, we were thrilled to see how the locals were excited about it. It was almost like they had been waiting for someone to take care of their waste.”
For the first few weeks, the college students and NGO volunteers visited every household and explained the outcome of dumping their waste near the ponds. As an alternative, the team hired a ragpicker for door-to-door waste collection.
It was for the first time the villagers had someone knock their door every morning to pick up their household waste!
Students conducted sessions on waste management in Ambapur to spread awareness
We had been habituated to dump our waste outside the house or near the local ponds. When Mohan, the ragpicker, started lifting our garbage, the guilt of dirtying the environment was no more there, Leela, a resident told TBI.
In the second stage, every household was given a blue and green dustbin to practice waste segregation.
“Once they got used to not littering their surroundings, we introduced source segregation to treat the wet and dry garbage separately,” says Kinjal.
Mohan transports the wet garbage to the composting pits located on the outskirts of the village. He stores the dry waste in a room and deposits it at a recycling unit every month.
Mohan, a ragpicker, collects wet and dry waste and disposes it accordingly
In the third stage of the programme, the team launched two composting pits set up on the land provided by the Sarpanch committee. The manure generated from the pits is handed over to local farmers for use in their fields.
Today, eight months later, no waste is dumped near the ponds.
Knowing that sustaining this project is more difficult than its implementation, Kinjal and Deep have introduced several measures for its sustenance, surprise checks being one of them.
“Since the volunteers live close to the village, they conduct random visits to the village once a week. For first time offenders, we issue a warning, and on repeating the offence, we levy a fine of Rs 80. Interestingly, there has been no violation of waste segregation till now,” adds Deep.
After turning into a zero-waste village, there has been a significant change in people’s mindset and the condition of the village.
With time, the residents stopped littering on roads
Commenting on the visible change, Sachin Patel, a resident from the village says, “Earlier the roads would be littered with garbage that would attract insects and rodents. Now, the village has become very clean. It feels so much better to walk around the village without coming in contact with eyesores like rotting piles of refuse. Today we see proper disposal of waste.”
Now the village has a collection system to collect waste and more importantly along with collection we segregate waste. Nobody throws waste outside. Even kids throw the garage in dustbins. I am pleased to see the work conducted by the volunteers, says Tushar Parekh, another resident.
Deep feels that the villagers have undergone a transformation at an individual level. They not only refrain from littering their surroundings but also stop others from doing so.
Continuous efforts by the residents made the village garbage free
Mohan’s life has also changed for the better. Earlier, he used to rummage through the waste with a hope to salvage something useful to sell which could afford him his daily meals. Now, with the monthly salary from the Sarpanch committee and the money he earns from selling the dry waste to the recycling unit, his financial problems are solved.
The waste management model implemented in Ambapur shows how collective efforts of people can solve even the biggest problems in the shortest time.
Kudos to the villagers for accepting a change and sustaining it and to the volunteers who dedicated their time and effort to a village that was completely alien to them!
When someone talks about waste and recycling, the first thing that possibly pops into all of our heads is “plastic.” But truth to be told, there are far too many contenders out there that equally contribute to the ever-growing waste burden of the planet.
Like ceramic waste! Ever wondered what happens to all those ceramic tiles, utensils and showpieces that are manufacturing defects? Let’s get into the statistics of the ceramic tile industry to find out the figures of ceramic waste.
According to a 2014 report, the production of the global ceramic tiles market stood at 13 billion square metres in terms of volume. Another report states that approximately 2,50,000 tonnes of tiles wear out every year, and another ten crore tiles go into repairs.
“Just one sanitary ware cluster in India carries out production using around 7.2 Lakh tonnes of clay per year, out of which 21,600 tonnes of fired pieces go waste due to manufacturing defects. Multiply this by five decades of production at this cluster!” says Shashank Nimkar, a postgraduate student at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad who is on a mission to develop ‘Recycled Ceramic Tableware’ from industrial waste as part of his graduation project.
The urge to do so first emerged during an industrial visit in 2017, when Shashank’s class visited Khurja, a major ceramic hub in India.
Shashank Nimkar with an recycled ceramic mug.
“My friends and I observed heaps of rejected ceramic pieces in almost every lane. Instantly, we had a chorused thought that something needs to be done about this!” he recalls.
Though talks were on, nothing took flight seriously on this topic until it was time for the class’s graduation project and Shashank jumped on the opportunity to work on a self-initiated project instead of taking up a paid internship at a firm or a studio.
Starting with finding out more about waste generation and processing in various countries, Shashank was surprised to find that there was no mention of ceramic waste.
“Everyone has been talking about segregating plastics and other materials at the source and otherwise, but there is no account on how users can dispose off their broken ceramic wares or how the ceramic waste of a demolished building is managed, which is a common feature nowadays. With Pollution Control Board getting stricter with every passing year, this inert waste was increasingly causing a menace,” he says.
He further sheds light over how ceramic lives for a longer time than plastic under the earth.
Measuring ingredients for slip preparation.Mixing recycled material with clay body and Testing on Jigger Jolly (right/left).Slip preparation and First casting test (left/right).
“Plastic can be recycled many times. Even though it takes millions of years for plastic to decompose, it does decompose (not to forget bio-plastics); while ceramic remains for even longer time or perhaps forever. That’s what archaeology has shown us. Though ceramic does not affect ecology adversely, it just lies there like a dead weight, unutilised. It has not been recycled, only dumped from one place to another. Well, until now,” Shashank says excitedly.
So, he decided to give life to these rejects by recycling them into eco-friendly tableware. Currently, in the experimental stage, Shashank created prototypes made of 70 per cent recycled ceramic and 30 per cent fresh clay. How did he go about it?
“The fired rejects are crushed to a fine powder. This powder forms the major portion of the product with virgin clay used in lesser quantities to act as a natural binder to make the product. We have been able to develop slip (liquid clay) using this composition, which enables us to do the casting. With the help of slip casting, it is now possible to develop complicated forms using this material,” Shashank explains.
He further shares that his experiments have been showing promising results.
“However, to make it production-friendly, I am planning to use 50 per cent of recycled ceramics to start with, while simultaneously experimenting with even higher percentages of recycled content. Using 50 per cent of recycled ceramics proves to be a major step forward,” he clarifies.
The advantages of this new material include reduction of mining of resources used to make ceramic products, productive disposal of waste through recycling, energy and cost-effectiveness and quick casting time for production. And aesthetics? “The products made out of this clay body are at par with traditional ceramics. Each ware is coated with a layer of fresh glaze making it completely food safe,” he adds.
On an ending note, Shashank highlights that his project, most importantly, focuses on saving the planet. “The present rate at which we are consuming resources, we will soon need two planets to fulfil our consumerist demands. Our actions can’t be undone if it’s too late. So, next time when you plan to throw away your old plates, bowls and vases, think again!” he ends.
To know more about Shashank’s endeavours on recycling ceramic waste, you can write to him at nimkarshashank@yahoo.in.
Around this time last year, the Uttar Pradesh government had declared five of its districts as drought affected. Summer had just begun in India’s most populous State when the districts of Mahoba, Lalitpur, Jhansi, Sonebhadra and Mirzapur were already facing a severe water crisis – an unfortunate trend for several years.
With the water table getting disrupted due to climate change as well as human activities, 68 UP districts faced severe droughts in 2002 which has remained more or less the same these last 13 years.
One person among the thousands affected by drought was Ramveer Tanwar from Dadha village in Greater Noida. Ramveer comes from a family of generations of farmers who have seen upfront adverse effects of the changing climate and water tables on their lives.
Join The Better India and Anand Malligavad as part of the Lake Revivers Collective and donate now to help us breathe life back into India’s lakes. Anand is a techie from Bengaluru who has revived 3 lakes in the city and plans to save a total of 45 lakes by 2025.
Ramveer grew up diving into the village lakes and wells on a hot day. In the summer of 2012, as a class 12 student, Ramveer noticed that the lakes that he and his friends would swim in were disappearing.
“The lake that once had fresh, clean water, was now choking with garbage. It was covered in such filth that it was difficult to see the water beneath. The area had started stinking, and I also noticed that the biodiversity around the lake was diminishing. It was a call for concern, and I tried to answer it,” the 26-year-old tells The Better India.
It began not with lake revival but water conservation:
Finding a way to revive lakes via water conservation. Courtesy: Ramveer Tanwar.
At that point, along with attending school and helping his father on the farm, Ramveer also took tuitions of young students. Teaching bright young minds made him realise that this could be an excellent avenue to begin a campaign. He started speaking about the lake’s condition to his students and how the conservation of water could help its restoration.
“The bore well of 25 feet was dried up in a year, making the villagers dig further to 150 ft,” he tells the Edex Live, adding, “They would let water overflow because they didn’t imagine that water could, one day, disappear. Unlike the mafia or the construction contractors here, these villagers had no understanding of what they were doing- it was important that we picked up a conversation.”
When the children tried to explain the consequences of throwing waste into the village lake, they were greeted only with smirks and derision.
A small amount of garbage in the house could not affect the big lake, they scoffed. That’s when Ramveer decided to take matters into his own hands and went from door to door, talking to the village families about water conservation.
Ramveer, a man on a mission to save lakes. Courtesy: Ramveer Tanwar.
As the stage was set for his efforts, Ramveer then urged his students to bring their parents, neighbours and friends to a chaupal (commonplace) every Sunday. Here, he began uniting the families to strive for water conservation. “The responses were positive and more people started arriving at the chaupals. Soon we started getting calls from the nearby villages as well,” he tells the publication.
Soon, word reached N P Singh, an IAS officer, District Magistrate (DM) of Noida at the time. Singh, who has been recognised for his work in uplifting the Bawariya community in UP, decided to give a better platform to Ramveer’s work to attract the attention of his district to it. He named the engineer’s efforts as ‘Jal Chaupal’ and shot a documentary about it. This 2-minute feature film, Ramveer tells TBI, was played as a preview in several movie theatres to bring awareness to the villager’s efforts.
What had begun as an effort to conserve water took a fresh turn when Ramveer got two filters built near the lake to stop domestic waste from entering the lakes. This, he realised, was his true calling- reviving lakes and restoring its biodiversity.
One good deed deserves another:
The crusader for lake restoration believes in community driven lake revivals. Courtesy: Ramveer Tanwar.
It took a few months, but Ramveer, along with young children and adults, cleaned the lake in his village, taking out the trash and installing filters to maintain it. Soon enough, he was getting requests from neighbouring villages to revive their lakes too.
“We started by reviving the pond in Dabra village, which had been turned into a dumping yard. However, with the help of locals we cleaned it and also planted saplings on the periphery of the pond to rejuvenate the ecosystem there,” he told the Times of India.
Positive responses and outcome of these lakes and ponds inspired Ramveer to beckon people all over India to join the cause. He thus started the #SelfieWithPond campaign on Facebook, inviting people to post the latest pictures of a lake or pond in their area. There was no condition laid for the cleanliness of the water bodies. If the lake was dirty, it acted as a pointer for the local authorities to clean it. If it was clean, it served as an inspiration.
“We got a great response for the campaign, which I thought would be limited only to Noida or at the most, Uttar Pradesh. But we got photos from as far as Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. A few weeks after the campaign gained momentum, I also got calls saying that as a result of some pictures, the local authorities had started cleaning the lakes. It felt great, genuinely,” the engineer tells TBI.
What goes into the cleaning of one lake:
A lake restored to its former glory. Courtesy: Ramveer Tanwar.
Ramveer and his team of core members and volunteers have revived over ten lakes so far, since their collaborative efforts that began in 2014. Usually, they focus on small lakes that are between 0.5 to 3 hectares due to a fund crunch.
“The revival of a lake takes anywhere between Rs 2 to Rs 25 lakh, depending on its size,” says Ramveer. “I used to shell out money from my pocket. My friends who are active in the cause also contributed equally. One of them is a lawyer, one is an engineer like me and we all have regular jobs. After we return from the office and on weekends, we spend most of our time on this cause. But to become more financially sustainable, we have started approaching organisations to make use of their CSR activities. That is a lucrative source that we are currently looking into.”
But what is even more interesting is how Ramveer and his team involve villagers in cleaning the lakes in their localities. Whether it is by asking for labour or equipment, they ensure that the cleanliness and revival drives are not ‘by some outsider’.
“It is important to establish an emotional bond between the villagers and the lake. Without that, they will think of us as some outsiders who cleaned the lake and will feel nothing about going back to trashing the water body.
Ramveer makes sure that he helps the villagers forge a bond with their lakes. Courtesy: Ramveer Tanwar.
So, we start our work 2-3 months before the actual cleanliness starts. We approach the respected elders in the village, explain our work to them and form a group that helps us spread the word. Later, we ask for each villager to contribute to physical labour or equipment. They also pitch in Rs 5 per person – a fund that is handled by the group of elderly villagers. Depending on the availability of big machines and the time we require to gather funds, the entire process takes anywhere between 6 to 12 months,” Ramveer explains.
On average, the team extracts 500-1000 kg of plastic per hectare of land from each lake. While the plastic is sent for recycling after the revival, it demands the question as to why it landed there in the first place. Perhaps we need to rethink our garbage disposal methods, so it doesn’t directly harm the water bodies that benefit fishers and farmers. To ensure that their efforts are sustained after revival, fishers from the local communities are given the responsibility of the lake.
At a time when big cities like Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru are at the risk of running out of groundwater in the next two years, it is individual efforts like Ramveer’s that are serving as an inspiration. You can support his efforts financially or as volunteers. Write to him at ramveertanwarg@gmail.com to join his cause.
Join The Better India and Anand Malligavad as part of the Lake Revivers Collective and donate now to help us breathe life back into India’s lakes. Anand is a techie from Bengaluru who has revived 3 lakes in the city and plans to save a total of 45 lakes by 2025.
It is no secret that Indians love to go overboard when it comes to celebratory occasions like birthdays and anniversaries. Perhaps it is because we love involving everyone in our joy, while also showing off a tiny bit.
But, as we splurge on expensive clothes and decorations, or lay out a lavish spread for our guests, we need to spare a thought for the inevitable wastage which is a part of any celebratory occasion.
This includes leftovers, plastic plates, thermocol decoration pieces and the like, that never get used again. The sad part is, we have become more or less used to the idea.
If you think that it is near impossible to make a birthday party or an event zero-waste, or even low-waste for that matter, let us tell you that this mother from Mumbai just did that!
Sonal Gawde and Shreyes Menon are the proud parents of Samyra, who turned two on 16 March. The family resides in Dadar and has been leading a low-waste lifestyle for about two years now.
Incidentally, Sonal is the co-founder of an eco-friendly venture named Greenmoms India, that sells products like bamboo toothbrushes for kids, cloth bags and other non-plastic utility products.
So, when Samyra’s birthday was coming in close, Sonal wanted to throw a party for her friends and their parents, but one that would generate minimal waste while being fun.
“We often go overboard when it comes to birthday celebrations for our little ones, without realising that more than half of the things go to waste, while the rest are used only once or twice. More than that, wastage has become quite normalised, and our kids grow up with that conditioning. Expensive clothes or toys, these hold little significance for kids, for whom having fun on their birthday is the ultimate goal,” says Sonal, in conversation with The Better India.
Sonal started looking for ideas for Samyra’s party, and help came in the form of her friend Mughda Joshi, who is also the co-founder of Green Moms.
Both moms have young kids, who often share toys and exchange clothes.
“Mughda had decoration pieces from her son’s last birthday, which I asked her if I could borrow, and she was more than glad to help. When we felt that this wasn’t enough to decorate the whole house, we went to the flower market in Dadar and brought home garlands. This eliminated any plastic decorations or the plastic wrapping that usually comes with it,” Sonal explains.
As for requirements like plates, spoons and glasses, Sonal worked out ways to acquire them in bulk.
“We didn’t have enough steel plates for all the people we’d invited. So, I decided to head to the organic market and found an Areca leaf plate distributor. We specially requested her to supply these to us but not in plastic wrapping—to our surprise, she readily agreed! As for glasses, I got my mother and sister to get their glasses from home to add on to the ones that I already had. As of spoons, we’d enough at home to cater for all,” she says.
With all these factors sorted, their next and last concern was food.
“We didn’t want to put out a spread comprising deep-fried snacks but something healthy that the kids would like to eat. We wanted to rope in restaurants who were willing to supply food in our own containers and luckily, we found two such places. One caterer was so touched by our request, that he offered to send the food in their non-plastic containers,” she happily adds.
She put together a spread comprising idli and poori bhaji as well as a variety of fruits and adds that not only was the food was savoured by one and all, there was no wastage at all!
“Even the cake that we got for Samyra was not bought from regular bakeries but made by home bakers. We particularly requested them to not use a plastic cake topper or the thermocol base. Instead, the cake had her name written on itself with the icing itself,” Sonal explains.
Even the invite they used was an online one that was circulated through WhatsApp.
The Birthday Invite. Courtesy: Sonal Gawde Menon.
“Mughda gave me the idea for that. We wanted to avoid unnecessary paper wastage too. In the invite, we requested all the parents to avoid plastic toys and preferably gift eco-friendly toys. What was heartening is that people made an effort to do what we asked and close 90 per cent if the gifts Samyra received were eco-friendly,” she adds.
For the fun and games bit, Sonal put together Samyra’s toys as well as creative games using food that would engage kids. “From the same bakers, we got muffins and asked the kids to decorate these using the fruits we got. Also, I thought of putting out Samyra’s toys for other kids to play, with the thought that these were new for them. And finally, we gave away bamboo toothbrushes—all sustainable—as return gifts!” Sonal happily adds.
The philosophy extended to Samyra’s clothes as well.
Little Samyra. Courtesy: Sonal Gawde Menon.
“Our daughter had a dress which was gifted earlier but was never used. So, we didn’t purchase a new one. Alongside, we are keen about supporting our local shops, so we got her a traditional cotton attire stitched at a paltry price of Rs 400. Instead of the expensive dresses that never get worn again, at least, she can wear it till it wears down, without harming the environment,” she says.
When the party ended, the couple had very few items to throw away as waste.
“We took about 25 minutes to clean up the entire house and that too, without any outside help. Our efforts proved that birthdays or any celebratory event for that matter could be easily organised with low wastage, if we put our heart and soul to it and what’s more, these can be fun, too. We know that kids and parents, who came for Samyra’s birthday had fun and believe that all of us can too,” she concludes.
Besides keeping events low waste, the couple has also been silently championing the cause of the environment.
Courtesy: Sonal Gawde Menon.
“We often go for walks along the Dadar-Shivaji Park stretch, and it was disturbing to find so much trash along the route. We decided to carry gloves during these walks and pick these up every time we go there. Nowadays, even Samyra joins us and points out waste by saying ‘kachra!’” she laughs.
Keeping it simple but not discounting on the fun factor at all, Sonal and Shreyes have proved it that any occasion can be celebrated without generating mounds of waste—be it food or non-biodegradable elements!
“We need to stop thinking about what others would think. There is only joy in borrowing and also for those, who are lending—because unused things are being repurposed. Such habits go a long way, especially for our kids, because they then understand the value of sharing,” Sonal concludes.
Their efforts are indeed a lesson for us all, and hopefully, we can all try being less wasteful when it comes to celebrating birthdays or anniversaries from now on.
Nivedha was in her third year of chemical engineering at Bengaluru’s R V College of Engineering when she made headlines in a local magazine. She and a group of friends had cleared a lane near their college that had been piled with waste for months.
In an exclusive interview with The Better India, she recalls, “We saw people scrunching their noses and complaining about the unbearable stench and how the area was becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes. They couldn’t even keep their windows open. Yet, no one wanted to change anything. We decided to clear the area. Though it garnered us a lot of praise, it was heartbreaking to see the area dumped with the same amount of waste in less than a week.”
Soon, Nivedha realised that they did not offer a solution, but a merely reactive approach to waste.
Nivedha R M
She visited the BBMP office asking why action wasn’t taken. The officials answered, “What is the use of clearing the area when people do not segregate their waste in the first place?”
What did this mixed waste look like?
“In one bag of waste, you can find a diaper, plastic-laden sambar and a dead rat. How can anyone make any value of waste mixed to this degree? So, it lands up being dumped and burned in front of our homes,” she says.
A door-to-door awareness session about segregation alerted her about the flaw in the waste collection system. Even though homes segregated their waste, many times, the individuals responsible for the collection, being unskilled labourers, would mix it to get more money per kilo when they sold it.
She conducted extensive literature surveys into the existing technology for waste segregation.
“India generates 1.7 lakh tonnes of waste per day, of which 95 per cent is unsegregated. The state of landfills in Delhi is no news, but even Bengaluru is running out of space for its waste. I realised that no technology could handle mixed waste to this degree. I wondered what a middle-class student like me could do.”
But, someone had to find a solution.
This marked Nivedha’s journey into inventing Trashbot, a semi-automatic waste segregator that could segregate waste within minutes. It won several awards and recognitions at state and national levels.
This is the story of how this innovation came about.
The Beginning
Trashbot
“I started ideating in 2016. Over six months, I built a small system. The principle leveraged the major difference between biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste—the moisture content. While biodegradable waste has 90 per cent moisture, non-biodegradable waste has at least 40 per cent moisture.”
After building a prototype, a 1-kg waste processing model, she decided to scale it up to a 50-kg-per-hour model. But she lacked funds.
This led her to apply for Elevate 100, a flagship programme by the Karnataka Government that recognises top 100 innovative startups and funds them.
“I had no idea how to set up a company, but I applied as a one-day-old proprietorship company. Competing with more than 3,500 startups, many of which had ongoing business with over 150 countries, I made it to the top 100.”
This was also the time when her final results were out, and she had secured the 9th place, along with good CAT and XAT scores. A secure future was awaiting her.
“I remember telling my mother that perhaps I should put the project on the backburner, earn some money and return to it later. But she retorted, ‘There is nobody who is trying to solve a problem which is going to kill us any day. Why don’t you do it? Even with my meagre salary, I will support you. It is okay if you fail, but try, Nivedha’.”
The resulting 50-kg-per-hour prototype from the Elevate 100 funding was installed in an apartment complex with 150 homes. It gave her insights about possible issues like overloading and how unskilled labour could affect the efficiency of the machine.
Also, an apartment complex was too small to create a large impact.
So she decided to build a machine that could process 250 kilos of waste and installed it at a dumpsite in the municipality.
Working at the dumpsite
“Studying the waste supply chain, I realised how waste from our homes goes to a collection centre in smaller trucks which is then transported to landfills in bigger trucks. I wondered if I could eliminate the role of the bigger trucks. Not only would the government save millions of rupees, but we could generate value from waste and prevent it from going to landfills.”
A request to the local corporator earned her space and an electricity connection to set up the unit at a dump yard. On day one, when she demonstrated the machine, she called everyone who told her it wouldn’t work.
“The minute the person put the garbage bag into the unit, the machine broke down, and the motor jumped out. I had no idea what the garbage bag contained. Later, I found that it had a boulder. Eight months of slogging turned to waste. But there was a new insight—this machine had to become idiot-proof.”
At the time, Saurabh Jain, a CA and an electronics engineer, became her mentor. Given his engineering background, he could understand the technical aspects that Nivedha was struggling with. He constantly encouraged her. But it was easier said than done, right?
They worked together for a week at the dump yard. The stark reality moved Saurabh. He quit his co-owned CA firm to join Nivedha in her fight against waste.
The duo spent close to five months together where they would go to the dump yard early and return late, developing the machine. In the last year, more people joined the Trashcon team.
“These were individuals just as crazy and passionate as us who gave up lofty jobs to work in a dump yard,” she shares.
Six months ago, this team of passionate and environmentally-conscious got the machine up and running in the municipality office.
The team at work
“This machine is not only idiot-proof but segregates waste to more than 90 per cent efficiency at any given time. Even if you put any mixed waste into it, the Trashbot will segregate and recycle it within minutes.”
The waste segregator is currently available in four capacities—500 kg, two tonnes, five tonnes and ten tonnes.
How does it work?
Trashbot in the background
When a bag of mixed waste is put into the dumping bin in the machine, it is torn open, and the contents are sent into a magnetic separation system where batteries, contaminants and other metals are removed. The rest of the material is taken up by a loading conveyor and sent to a shredding unit.
Why is it shredded?
Say if your plastic has any food or organic waste particles, shredding it reduces the surface area that the organic waste can stick to. Once shredded, it falls like a curtain in front of a high-pressure high-speed fan.
The air pressure ensures that the biodegradable waste is collected in a conveyor close to the fan and the non-biodegradable waste is pushed further, to be collected separately.
And voila! Waste segregation is complete.
What happens to the segregated waste?
Chair made from recycled boardsWall clock made from the recycled board
The biodegradable waste helps generate biogas or produce organic compost/manure.
The non-biodegradable waste is used to make recycled boards which can be transformed into tables, chairs, roofing tiles, partition walls, among other things.
“Till date, the authorities were only spending money on waste, but here’s a complete zero-waste system, that converts waste into wealth.”
Trashcon follows three business models:
1. They recommend the segregator to those who have channels set for the use of biodegradables and non-biodegradables.
2. In the second model, they sell the segregator and buy back the non-biodegradable waste to create boards. So the customer not only makes a green choice but also generates revenue.
3. The third model is where they set up an end-to-end zero waste management system and make manures and recyclable boards from the output.
The company is now working with industry biggie, Pidilite, which helps the boards reach carpenters. This has already found a huge market not just in India but even Canada, Australia and the USA.
“Early on, we realised that we were sitting on a gold mine. Besides the potential of generating millions of dollars per month, these recycled boards could be a sustainable alternative to plywood. It is water-resistant, termite-resistant, and looks like marble. When sold, it can also help us cover the costs of building our waste segregator.”
How much does the machine cost?
What mixed waste looks like? A reason why we need to segregate it
Nivedha answers, “Trashbot starts at Rs 9 lakh and the price varies on capacities. Societies can process their waste and connect it to a biogas plant or composting unit. The gas can be used for cooking purposes, while compost in the gardens. Plus, they can sell the non-biodegradable waste to us and generate revenue too.”
They set up a segregator at Adani Port in Mundra, Gujarat, which was one of their first big projects. Despite a few glitches, the client’s faith in their technology supported the team.
She says, “The greatest satisfaction for me was that the women who had to touch the waste to separate it manually, have now become dignified supervisors. They told us, ‘We don’t have to do much now. We just switch the machine on and off while it does everything’.”
Their next big project is in collaboration with the Airports Authority of India where Trashcon will be processing waste for the Chennai Airport. The execution will take place in the next four months.
In her final message, Nivedha says, “When I started working at the dumpsite, my friends were getting an MBA. They would joke and mock me as a kachrewali (waste-picker). But now, when I look back, the recognition and the blessings of people we impacted, outweigh any doubts. With every tonne of waste I saved from entering landfills, I impacted 4,000 lives (1 kg per household of four). We now want to reach every village and city and prove that waste is wealth.”
To know more, get in touch with Nivedha at nivedha@trashcon.in or visit Trashcon’s website here.
Long before television and smartphones took over as news providers, the coming of the newspaper signalled the break of dawn for most households in India.
Though the readership of this old source of news has gone down in the last one decade across the globe, India is, perhaps, one of those few countries where people still purchase newspapers.
I remember how newspaper reading was often hailed as a good habit in both schools and homes, which made my father subscribe to three publications. Once the newspapers had served their purposes, they would be repurposed for packaging, but more often than not, they would be left to stack up in one corner of the house to be sold to scrap dealers at paltry sums.
However, for those who are into craft, newspapers are one of the unassuming yet versatile materials that can practically be used to create anything!
Take Nashik’s Meena Patankar for example. One look at the dolls and various other craftwork she creates and you would be hard pressed to believe that these are crafted from newspaper.
Check some of these out and see for yourself!
Engaged in art and craft for over a decade, Meena’s tryst with paper started when her children grew up. “I found that there was a lot of time for me to while by as my daughters left to pursue higher studies. A lot of newspapers had piled up in our house, and I wanted to do something out of it,” says Meena to The Better India (TBI).
However, the real motivator came from an FB post, where someone had created a flower pot using only newspapers, and Meena was really inspired. “I started looking up on the Internet, and came across numerous videos where people have used newspapers to make brilliant craftwork. Some explained very efficiently how they did it while many others didn’t and I started exploring different techniques myself,” she recalls.
This was five years back.
Now, Meena’s paper dolls are quite famous in the city and people often approach her with orders.
Meena with her dolls.
“I only make the dolls when someone places an order locally. Unlike paper mache, my craftwork is made of paper tubes, which makes it fragile and hard to store in mass quantities. Also, these need to be protected from dust,” she explains.
Well, paper craft isn’t Meena’s only forte, who also specialises in Gond and Worli artforms. One could say that the creativity runs in the family, for Meena’s both daughters are in the design field. She finds great support from her husband as well as her kids in all her endeavours
What a wonderful way to recycle paper that is not only creative but also a treat for the eyes. We wish Meena luck and hope she continues to create such beautiful works.
If you wish to reach out to Meena, you can call her at 8805916811.
As a child, I would eagerly wait for the month end.
I would start calling up Rajesh, our local scrap dealer, as soon as our newspaper shelf was full. The money earned from selling newspapers and other dry kabad or scrap added a bonus to my pocket money.
But there have also been days when Rajesh would go to his native place, and my family struggled to store the scrap items at home.
It was during those times that we wondered if there were any alternatives.
Well, fast forward a decade and dealing with waste has become easier.
From groceries, medicines, clothes, beauty products, jewellery to plant saplings and seeds, everything is only a click away, thanks to the boom in the e-commerce industry over the last decade.
And now, e-commerce has slid in to the waste management sector.
Several companies across India are now giving free doorstep service to lift dry waste. Such online services have not only made waste handling more manageable, and lucrative, but ensures its eco-friendly disposal too.
Here are five online Kabadiwalas that are streamlining the handling of waste:
1) The Kabadiwala
Through recycling, the company has saved 10, 200 trees
Founded by Anurag Asati and Kavindra Raghuwanshi, The Kabadiwala is an online avatar of the local scrap dealers. All one has to do is schedule a visit online, and the team will visit the house, lift recyclable items including newspaper, plastic, metal, books, iron, etc. In return, the customer will get paid.
The Kabadiwala also has live tracking feature for people to track their waste and where it goes. Once the scrap items are deposited at respective recycling units, the Kabadiwala sends its customers an environment report informing them about their contribution in numbers.
Through recycling, the company has saved 10, 200 trees, 2.5 lakh litres of oil and 13.8 million litres of water.
Where it functions: Bhopal, Indore, Aurangabad and Raipur.
Started in 2015, the Delhi-based startup collects all recyclable items including plastics, aluminium, iron, paper, books, glass and so on.
The company founded by Niraj Gupta, Shailendra Singh, Prashant Kumar, and Shubham Shah offers a perfect blend of junk and art.
While the ‘junk’ from your house will be collected in a hassle-free manner, ‘art’ is the technology-friendly creative touch they give to eliminate scrap in exchange for some valuable cash.
User can get paid in hard cash or Paytm Wallet. Customers also have the option to donate the money to an NGO that has tied us with JunkArt.
On placing an order, the nearest scrap dealer associated with the startup will come to your house and collect the discarded items.
Keeping complete transparency, Junkart has given rate cards on its website displaying the money each scrap item will fetch.
Where it functions: Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru
Karma Recycling accepts 3,000 models of smartphones, tablets, and laptops
As the name suggests, the company started by Aamir Jariwala and Akshat, lets you improve your karma!
The company buys old mobile devices and sells back repaired ones at much cheaper rates.
All a user has to do is go to the website, pick the brand and model of the smartphone, laptop or tablet he/she wants to sell, and answer some basic questions about the condition of the device. The website uses algorithms that give users an estimate based on the state of the phone.
Once the customer agrees to sell the device, people from Karma Recycling go, pick it up and send it to one of their service centres – either in Delhi or Bangalore. The device is assessed by engineers who check if the seller had answered the questions about its condition correctly or not.
If yes, the person gets his/her money and, if not, Karma Recycling offers an alternate cost that the user can decline or accept. If declined, the device is returned to the user.
Karma Recycling accepts 3,000 models of smartphones, tablets, and laptops as of now.
So far, the company has purchased 5.6 lakh mobile phones and paid close to 15 crores to its customers.
Every year, ExtraCarbon collects about 6,000 tonnes of e-waste and other garbage. The Gurugram-based startup was founded in 2013 and has 41,000 users in nine cities primarily in North India.
The customers are given cash or shopping credits in exchange for recycled goods, from a book, bottles to electronics. ExtraCarbon then sells recycled materials to government-certified waste processors.
In the first year of its operation, the company earned ₹70 lakh, The Hindu Business Line reported.
Based out of Hyderabad, Scraptap helps its customers become ‘Zero Waste Hero’ through a 5-Step Zero Waste Programme. For scrap buyers to sellers, the startup is a platform that offers a common platform for recyclable – discovery, management, and movement.
The company executive rings the bell at the scheduled hour to pick the garbage up. He collects the materials and weighs them using a digital weighing scale, and then calculates the sum value of the materials you are selling. Once you verify the amount, he pays you the same, and takes away your scrap.
The startup has managed to divert 48 lakh kilos of waste from landfills, recycled 45 lakh kilos of paper and saved 72,000 trees.
The user can slate a pick-up service on the website or WhatsApp them at +91 90300 01124
In 2010, when Shrikant Parab, a startup consultant and the secretary of Andheri’s Shatdal Society, started working in the space of waste management, he recalls that a leading international company within his network offered him a 2000 metric tonne (MT) waste processor.
When he proposed the use of the model to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the project did not culminate into reality.
Yes, it was disheartening. But it also allowed Parab to visit the dumpsites in Mumbai and witness the deplorable conditions, residents in its vicinity lived in.
“Mumbai has three major dumping sites—Kanjurmarg (which currently has 45 lakh MT of waste), Mulund (75 lakh MT) and Deonar (2.1 crore MT)—which have taken up more than 326 acres of land in the city! When we moved around in the slums and areas surrounding these sites, we saw the deprived lives people lived—with no clean water, polluted air and an average life expectancy of 40 years!”
Confronted with this information, Parab realised that the residents of the city were responsible for this mess because if it wasn’t for the insurmountable waste generated by them, the families living near dumpsites would lead better lives.
While he couldn’t make a difference at the civic body level, Parab decided to begin with small steps, i.e., tackle the waste problem in his society.
Shatdal Society
Spread across 2.5 acres with over 100 flats, Parab’s only support was Dr Rupe Divattia. It took the duo more than a year to convince the committee members to even give the concept a nod.
“Lack of space, inconvenience to residents, foul smell and breeding of mosquitoes were some of the issues that were raised against processing the waste.”
After multiple negotiations, the members agreed, and the first vermicompost unit, with a capacity of five-tonne, was set up on January 20, 2014. The metal grilled box pit took close to three months to fill up to its full capacity, and once the earthworms worked their magic, the waste turned into manure in 45 days.
The exceptional results from the first vermicompost unit pushed the society to invest in two more vermicompost units of the same capacity and process their organic waste.
Set up at the cost of Rs 15,000 each, each of these units within six months can generate close to 500-700 kgs of manure. Even if you calculate using the lower limit, the total quantity of manure over six months through three vermicompost units comes up to a whopping 1,500 kg!
Once sold at Rs 17 per kg, the demand of this 100 per cent organic manure by the society has risen over time. Today, it is sold for Rs 75 per kg!
Till date, the society has prevented more than 192 MT of waste from ending up in a landfill by vermicomposting!
Vermicomposting
It was also around the same time that the society and its 100 flats turned to segregate waste at source. Today each of the households at Shatdal, segregate dry and wet waste differently within their own homes.
Once collected, the society members further segregate this waste into 11 categories like plastic, paper, glass, metal, e-waste, medical waste, cardboard, and so forth. While the dry waste is sent for recycling, the wet waste is processed in the society itself.
By sending it for recycling, Parab adds how Shatdal society has prevented close to 92 MT of dry waste from exhausting landfills.
After the success of the vermicomposting unit, the members in 2014-15 began thinking of ways in which leftovers or discarded food items could be processed. This led them to adopt bio-composting.
“Vermicomposting has its limitations since you cannot add non-vegetarian food or any acidic or citric foodstuff like onions or lemon. To overcome these challenges, we set up bio-composting units. We experimented with the Japanese Bokashi culture, but when the waste started developing maggots that became difficult to contain and also started emanating odour, we had to find another alternative.”
The members got together to design their own drums, and instead of Bokashi culture that relies on inoculated bran to ferment waste, they used their own soil that is rich in bacteria. With a capacity of 500 kg each, both units processed mixed waste, soil, and sawdust together to form compost.
“In case you do not have access to sawdust, you can also use newspapers or dry leaves,” adds Shrikant.
The two units have been running for close to three and a half years and generate 45 kgs of compost each. While the vermicompost is 100 per cent organic manure, the bio compost is not, since it contains mixed food waste which includes meat, and food cooked in oil and spices.
The use of these bio-compost units has saved close to 48 MT from ending up in the landfill.
Shatdal Waste ManagementDry waste segregation
In 2016, the BMC passed an order stating that it wouldn’t collect waste from societies spread over 20,000 sqm with more than 200 members which generated more than 100 kg of waste but did not segregate it.
By this time, Shatdal had already turned into a zero-waste, model society.
“My number was floating through BMC wards. After several societies received notices from the BMC to segregate waste, they got in touch with me to help them out. Till date, we have helped replicate our segregation and waste processing model in across 35 societies in different parts of Mumbai,” he beams.
This year, the target is to reach out to 100 societies and help them segregate and process waste at source.
Solar Panels being gifted for turning for Zero-waste
Once the society turned zero-waste, Parab also put forth suggestions to turn it into a green society. Here’s how:
1) A local MLA gifted them solar panels worth 7.5 lakh that help power the common areas and the society premises.
2) All the lights on the premises are LEDs to reduce consumption, and the pumps are also solar-powered. The solar panels sit atop the three buildings in the society each has a capacity of generating 400 kW per day, which comes up to 1200kw per day that makes up for 60 per cent of their society’s electricity consumption. This has helped cut down the society electricity bills by 66 per cent.
3) The society also has two natural wells the water from which has been directed to the flush tanks of each of the households. So, the well water is used for flushing, thus avoiding wastage of potable municipal water from the purpose. This helps save 40 per cent water.
4) Each household has also adopted smaller changes that lead to more significant impacts. The members added a 300ml filled water bottle into residents’ flush tanks.
Since the bottle acquires space in the flush tank, with every flush, it saves 300ml of water. Multiply that by ten flushes a day in 100 flats, and you can imagine the amount of water it saves!
5) Similarly, when Parab saw the person responsible for cleaning the 40-odd cars in the society, use almost 10 litres of water for a single vehicle, he bought the helper a pressure spray. Now the man cleans the same number of cars in just 10 litres of water, saving 390 litres of water per day!
The society also undertakes an annual plantation drive. They have also grown fruit trees like banana, papaya, mango, jackfruit in the last three years using their organic vermicompost. Once harvested, the fruits are distributed free of cost to the residents.
The model society which planted 1800 trees in and around Mumbai last year, this World Environment Day, aims to extend this target to one lakh trees. They have been working with two other NGOs and are requesting all societies in Mumbai to plant trees within their premises or areas.
Shatdal Sapling Plantation
We wish Shatdal society the very best! And hope that other complexes and societies in the city take a leaf out of their book and replicate some of these initiatives to take a step towards a more sustainable future.
