Who’s taking the trash out in Bangalore?

What do you do when there is a garbage dump in front of your house and you want to get rid of it forever, or a huge amount of plastic you don’t know what to do with? Contact the BBMP? Well, most of us, maybe.

But for some others, a Google group post is all it takes in order to get their concerns heard and resolved too.

Zero Waste Management, Bangalore (zwm-blr) is a highly active Google group that focuses on addressing issues on waste management. “We noticed that a lot of people in the city work in isolated clusters duplicating a lot of effort. We wanted all of them to work together and share ideas, experiences and resources. Hence, we started the group zwm-blr in June 2009,” says Mayank Rungta, a software professional and volunteer at RideACycle Foundation.

Initially, only a group of 30-odd members, it has now grown to over two hundred in the past two years including students, engineers, homemakers as well as lecturers and several NGOs such as Saahas, Green Diamond and Daily Dump. “We have managed to find more people with the same passion as ours through our association with other sites and networks such as Facebook and Twitter as well. Many of us in the group are involved in other civic activities too, which, in turn, broadens our reach,” adds Rungta.

Predominantly focusing on garbage segregation as a solution to managing waste, few members also started the organisation Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT). “Segregating solid waste at source into dry and wet is the way to go in order to achieve zero waste. Statistically too, recycling costs much lesser than incineration or taking them to the landfills and it is definitely more practical to recycle. This is what we hope to achieve through our interaction with each other and activities,” says Dr Meenakshi Bharath, a gynaecologist and an active member of the Round Table.

The SWMRT organises offline activities as well, such as visits to landfill sites and creating zero-waste areas. To get an understanding of what happens to solid waste once it reaches a landfill site, the group visited Terra Firma in Dobespet, where enormous amounts of waste from the Bengaluru International Airport are dumped. “We found that the mixed waste is all put into a process of composting and then over three cycles more than 60% is converted into manure and sold to farmers. The thin plastic waste is washed and recycled and made into pellets and also sent to be added to the bitumen to make roads,” says Dr Bharath.

The group also counts converting the BBMP and BDA offices in the city into zero-waste campuses with the cooperation of the two civic agencies as achievements.

“Initially we started thinking of how to deal with the garbage issue. We then met Vellore Srinivasan. It was to take forward Srinivasan’s vision of zero waste as in Vellore that we first started SWMRT in Bangalore,” says Vani Murthy, a homemaker and governing council member of the RWA  ‘Malleswaram Swabhimaana Initiative’. “With Srinivasan’s help, we were able to build a composting trolley for the residents of Brigade Millennium, which they have adapted to their needs,” she says.

On the online group, a wide range of topics are discussed — segregating dry waste in households, eco-friendly exhibitions or even sharing links of articles on waste disposal techniques being used elsewhere.

“For me the group is a platform where I can document my activities systematically. I love uploading pictures of our visits to villages, landfills and other places where we find significant amount of work being done for the environment,” says Murthy.

So, why a Google group instead of an NGO? Surely, they would have made a better impact? “What we needed was a community of like-minded people just sharing ideas and experiences. Moreover, through the group it is easier for people to communicate via simple emails rather than an elaborate, formal procedure of registration,” claims Rungta.

The group, indeed, exemplifies how innovations in technology can be used to mend wrongs. “Bangaloreans are far from demotivated and the real potential of these innovations is yet to be realised. I have always believed in the goodness of people and technology only supplements that,” gushes Rungta.

Extensions of the same group have also been started in Mumbai and Delhi recently, which seem to be catching pace slowly with its Bangalore counterpart.

Get involved and be in touch with the people behind the group via email: zwm-blr@googlegroups.com.

Contact: DR Meenakshi Bharath, at 9845011757, meenakshibharath@gmail.com
Hotline no.: 919916102848