Zero Waste Journey 3 : Environmental Sustainability

Continuing from the Zero Waste Journey series .. AID Supported project at Tungabhadra Block, NGV, Bangalore . Sustainability : Topics discussed are Environmental. This blog would be useful for people who are  interested in the operational aspects of waste management. (All values are estimated for an apartment of size 220 )


Environmental Sustainability 

It is interesting to think of sustainability after running this project for 13 months of execution. 
Before getting into the project, my sole aim of sustainability was environmental sustainability.  . Within the first month of the project execution we could arrive at daily figures of waste generation both wet and dry. At the end of 1 month, we arrived at 4.5 Tonnes per month as our total waste output from 220 apartments within Tungabhadra. Which means, 54 tonnes of waste is generated from 220 apartments per annum. Out of this ,  we were able to reduce 90% (48 tonnes ) from reaching the landfills . The waste that is left for regular garbage collector is sanitary pads and diapers and plastic covers that are too soiled with wet waste mixing. The objective of the project to reduce waste reaching landfills causing health hazards to unknown and poor people was successfully met.


Typically , 50-60% comprises of wet waste and remaining is dry waste. This ratio can change depending on the strata of the community . An experiment done by Srinivasan in Dollar's colony , Bangalore showed a high output of dry waste - the men there drink too much producing lot of beer and wine bottles and the women there shop too much producing dry waste of higher quality :-) !

Environmental sustainability was the easiest aspect that was achieved , in the first month we reduced 90% from reaching landfill. 



The intend of AID was  to give job to local people through an environmentally sustainable project and to ensure there is reduction of waste reaching landfills. Chosing a city like Bangalore could also attract and inspire many more apartments ... within NGV and beyond.


Implementation Challenges :
1. Landspace of 40x60 ft was not difficult to find within NGV . However, the time involved in getting the approval to use the space was over 6 months. It is also important to ensure the ZWM centre is not to close and not too far away (keep atleast 40 ft  distance) from the residential community where the zero waste is being implemented. This landspace and infrastructure can manage waste from 660 apartments (3 Blocks) - today this manages just one block's waste. In case of Tungabhadra, 80% of initial setup cost of infrastructure (the shed for segregating waste and composting) came from AID . The remaining came as one time cost from residents  .  Landspace was provided by Karnataka Housing Board, adjacent to the Tungabhadra block so that the waste collected is also segregated and managed locally before sending for recycling. 


2. Infrastructure : Building a low cost infrastructure has been an important aspect. Srinivasan's philosophy was to ensure there is no waste generated from the material that has gone into making of the centre . The initial roofing was of tarpaulin could not survive the Bangalore rains, and we had to use fibre sheet roofing which escalated the cost and compromised on the flooring plans.


It is important to have flooring and compost beds ( models of low cost compost beds available with Vellore Srinivasan ) to ensure there is higher volume of waste managed per bed - we are yet to adopt this and what we now have is a very low cost compost bed with no side walls - this is a disadvantage. 


3. Labour : NGV has a proximity to Viveknagar/ Neelasandra slum from where most of the domestic and cleaning staff depend on over 2500 apartments within NGV for work. Unlike rural where Srinivasan's other implementations were made possible, the challenge was to attract people in need of steady flow of income.  The initial attitude of labour was a challenge as can be seen below : 



We celebrated the first salary given to the ZWM workers with lot of sharing and caring with them distributing sweets and making them part of an extended family. What we didnot realise was, one lady who was a strong influencer in the team failed to understand our salary cycle and instigated the rest , overnight ! The very next day  only one woman turned up for work ! This had a direct bearing on our waste collection since we were dependent on them .  By afternoon we had the entire worker team join back - they had a very innate capability to turn plates upside down based on situations.. Humans are humans, be it rich or poor  - politics and manipulation to our advantage is in our blood , else you are a saint !


At the end of 6 months of project execution the same team decided to leave  - their demand was they wanted baksheesh from us on a festival day. When we tried to explain that extra money would come with salary, the women who were given incentives like yearly education support for their children, loan and salary advance every month decided to conspire against us and leave. They left as of 6th Oct and thought we would negotiate.. By then we had got a backup team to support and they were put on job , and we resorted back to cleaning women for waste collection once again. The situation could have gone out of control if not for the backup team from Vellore who were mostly comprising of disabled people.  However, after a week we saw the old team were interested in joining back and within 3 months atleast 4 of them joined us back with a change in attitude.


Talent Retention   :
What attracts women to work ?
a) Steady inflow of money
b) Salary advance after salary is given - most of them have hand to mouth existence with huge loan to be repaid every month; cash liquidity gives them comfort 
c) Working with people whom they are comfortable with - they have lot of internal politics in their community which they carry to workplace
d) Timings - they like to come for work by 9:30 AM and leave by 5:30 PM
e) Proximity to home  



Movables required for the project implementation (Sample List)  : This was borne by Tungabhadra residents by paying Rs.500 per apartment which constituted 20% of project launch cost
a) Trolleys and drums for collecting waste
b) Red and Green bins for every house 
c) Tools required at the ZWM centre (example aluminum bins for segregation)
d) Information board for every household
e) Fly trapper


Planning for manual leaf shredder would also be ideal in order to ensure faster leaf mulching


Pre ZWM waste collection Process

The process involved in achieving Environmental Sustainability
1. Awareness Building : 

We conducted 6 sessions for 2 days involving the residents and maids of the apartment . We had Vellore Srinivasan, Dr Meenakshi as external speakers. It is important to show an external face in your community since there are higher chances of audience listening to someone new. We also screened the movie "Garbage to Gold " (www.zerowastemanagement.org) . Kids were involved through quiz and poster making organised and planned by a women sub committee

2. Primary Segregation or Segregation at Source : This is the foundation of waste management. The better we do segregation at source into wet and dry , the easier it is to manage waste once collected. Wet (green colour) bin and Dry (red colour) bins were provided to every household along with instructions as below . Prior to the project launch we provided this kit.  In the initial few months we saw atleast 60% waste being segregated at source. However, with less of constant awareness the segregation at source has not reduced to just 40% .. Continuous awareness is required atleast every 4 months to ensure segregation at source is ensured.
 .

3. Formal Project Launch (9th April 2011):We had a formal function involving residents, kids and also invitees from all walks of life , teachers, school children, horticulture department, NGV Central association to launch the project . We held this function and flagged off our trolleys and explained how the system would work post implementing zero waste management 

4. Segregated Collection System :

5. Secondary Segregation  (Back end process managed by ZWM team employed):
Plastic covers come in large quantities in the wet bin and hence need to be removed. Small sachets of sweets , ghutka are always a menace and they invariably are dumped into wet bin , beyond this there is a threat of sanitary pads that find their way into wet bin . Now we know that our wet drums are not really wet and our dry drums are not really dry, since our primary segregation with all the awareness is NOT fool proof. So the wet drums and dry drums need further segregation . This phase onwards is performed by a team of ZWM workers who are paid to do "waste management" and not waste dumping.


a) Wet waste Secondary : The dry items in the wet bin need to be separated before the food waste is put into the compost bed. The plastics covers mixed with food are washed and air dried to ensure  maggots are not attracted.Citrus peels are removed in order to ensure there is no acidic component in compost

Cowdung Magic : Anytime if you are faced with smell coming from the composting unit,  it is time to question the amount of cowdung going into the compost bed . The food waste need to be dipped in cowdung slurry before putting into the compost bed so that every molecule has the baterial innoculant added. Once I was faced with an issue where the women working at the centre broke the bed without my knowledge and put everything outside the centre - this was just one month after we started the project .... How can one stop the smell ? One golden advice from Srinivasan was to add cow dung and we added generously . I must tell you it acts like a switch on the smell ... that was my personal experience - anytime, I get slight smell near the centre, I make them add more of cowdung . 


Srinivasan is right, waste when managed on time, is material and the manual labour required converts what is dumped into resource.. Our experience at secondary and tertiary segregation is a direct experience and proof of what Srinivasan had not just been preaching, but practicing . When I was talking about how people dumped sanitary pads, he recalled how they got human parts from surgery section which came in a large black bag ! We need more Srinivasans to inspire people.. 


b) Dry  waste Secondary : Dry waste is further segregated into cardboards, paper, plastic covers, bottles, plastic items, metals . Secondary of waste would ensure various types of waste is separated based on the nature of their material. The material at secondary level if sold would have a rough market value of Rs.2 to Rs.4 per kg. There would be lot of plastic embedded inside cardboard/ paper which can cause wastage during recycling, if not properly segregated.

c) Dry  waste Tertiary Segregation : Srinivasan with his extensive understanding and research in the recycling market, has arrived at 13 different types of paper, 44 types of plastic items, 22 types of plastic covers, 9 types of cardboard. This level of segregation not only ensures finer segregation without generation of waste while recycling. 

To illustrate an example, the regular pet bottle comprises of 3 different items
 1. Pet bottle (white or colour)
 2. BOPP plastic , which is the label (it comes under plastic cover category)  
3. The cap  is PP plastic . 
If we were to send the pet bottle for recycling, the middle men would do this level of segregation to retrieve maximum material and price from pet bottle. BOPP plastic would normally be burnt by the recycler as it is not viable for him to send to plastic cover recycling company.. ! So your pet bottle is not completely recycled unless tertiary is done. Likewise,  there are many items that are burnt when it reaches recyclers who do not specialise or make money from that specific material.





6. Leaf Mulching :

A total of 4119 Kg of leaf mulch was sold between April 2011 and April 2012 in Tungabhadra. The leaf was collected within NGV premises.

7. Releasing our Products after 60 days (4th June 2011):
This step was necessary to give awareness to residents about the waste lifecycle and what is the back end processing done with the waste they have segregated and dumped. A day before the World Environment Day (5th June) we decided to release our products from waste collected for 2 months.

Other aspects that could be considered (Not implemented in Tungabhadra)  :
Bio gas plant or bio methanation unit - would reduce need for composting and sale of compost . This would also reduce the space required for managing wet waste. However, one needs to estimate the waste quantity that would go as input before implementing
What we dump to landfills and need for Continued Awareness :
1. Diapers and Sanitary pads
2. Non Recyclable plastic covers - aluminum coated plastic covers - Our bad eating habits is the real culprit !

When there is clear instruction to wrap sanitary pads and diapers in newspaper and mark with red sketch pen, the educated community dumps irresponsibly as seen in the below picture. Only 40% of waste comes as segregated remaining is all mixed inspite of awareness through door to door campaigns, posters and various video screening. 

 Economic and People Sustainability :  Read  blogs in below links
http://meeresh.blogspot.in/2012/04/zero-waste-journey-4-economic.html
http://meeresh.blogspot.in/2012/04/zero-waste-journey-5-people.html


Courtesy : Residents of Tungabhadra who segregated waste at source and co operated with the project, the management committee and association who supported. Vellore Srinivasan who was at the project site for over 6 months hand holding with us as and when we needed his help, Dr Meenakshi Bharath who supported in our initial awareness sessions, Mr Khanauttulla, Principal , KK English School who came with his school children and addressed the crowd with an inspirational speech during the inauguration day, Jithendra who supported in translating Vellore Srinivasan's talk in Kannada, the women committee who supported in awareness building and kids participation (Soumya, Meeta, Renu, Preeti, Bhagya, Remy, Kirti, Malini, , Latha, Sudha )


About Vellore Srinivasan and his passion :
Srinivasan's field experience and knowledge of various material and market is the root cause of this high income in the form of sales. If there had been issues, it was purely because of initial teething problems and various infrastructure restrictions that we as a team faced. I am glad that I never listened to the speculations and conclusions of "arm- chair " environmentalists who said "Srinivasan just talks" ..  My personal experience has been it was very very difficult for me to keep up with Srinivasan's passion on the topic. He would come in at 6:00 AM in the morning and work along with the labourers to train them on secondary and tertiary ... and often he would end his day at 1:00 AM in the midnight. One man, not just training people at the grass root level, but trying to bring in funds, mentoring other AID projects over phone , dealing with Govt for implementing similar models in distant parts of India , as distant from his home-town as North East India, sending reports to sponsorers of other AID projects he is managaing ! He has always made me feel, we at IT Industry are more or less lethargic and lazy people :-) Someone who earns close to 20 lakh per annum in a company could be heard saying "this company gives me peanuts " ! And here, we have Srinivasan who was never a slave to money or power, it was sheer passion towards environment that was driving him and for a lesser mortal like me, it was a tough task to keep up the same passion and contribute towards a common goal.

Channels of mass communication
The news of Tungabhadra doing waste management helped us in connecting with many more apartments who were interested in waste management. We were supporting atleast 3-4 apartments in the implementation of waste management in Bangalore