If there's one thing we can easily do to fight the mountains of garbage, it's by segregating our wet and dry waste at our home. Our proposed approach, "Wayste" is focused on forming a loop of waste generation and waste as a valuable commodity by gamifying the process of segregation at its initial stage of generation.
It all started when Tata launched their #TwoBinsLifeWins campaign that highlighted the hardships in the life of sanitation workers and what a huge difference can be made by JUST separating the wet waste from the dry waste.
At a round table meeting, we're discussing a video from this campaign "Mera Baba Desh Chalata Hai.." that showcased the reality of Mumbai. In a city of 23 million, only 50,000 individuals are employed as sanitation workers. They are working in difficult conditions every single day to tackle the enormous amount of waste by segregating it into the sewers, threatening their own lives.
After our discussion, I visited the Mavallipura Village - the place sadly known for 'A landfill where Bangalore dumps all its waste.' And I talked to a few villagers, commuters & shopkeepers there to get a candid perspective of their standings.
All of that trash ends up in a landfill, situated somewhere in the "outskirts" of the cities.
Landfills are basically giant holes dug into the ground, where the companies & administration toss in the stuff that we threw "away". And all that mixed garbage from households, hospitals, industries, restaurants & our neighbourhood sits there for ages and decays itself. Out of which, obviously, there are non-biodegradable materials that could not decompose naturally!
Another big problem with these landfills is the production of a toxic liquid called "leachate". Leachate is basically the nasty cocktail that collects from all the stuff in the landfill. And since it's a landfill, leachate is produced by tons of garbage stacked on top of itself, and all of the liquid waste from paints, pesticides, bleach, nail polish, medical waste, battery acids, and almost every kind of garbage. These leaks then get mixed up with the water bodies and cause water & air pollution, giving rise to various kinds of dangerous hazards.
# COVID IMPACT
Recently, I happened to meet a friend of my father at the supermarket. He shares the unfortunate news of his wife being tested positive for COVID-19. That's when I saw that he was disposing of his wife's biomedical waste with the general domestic waste - without any segregation.
"Do you know the possible repercussions of this act? Are you aware of the risks it poses to the safai karmachari, who would be responsible for collecting this garbage?" I asked my uncle. "Do you understand that if someone comes in contact with this particular garbage or even that sanitation worker, they would also be at high risk of catching the virus?" Then he just abruptly ended the conversation by asking, "Okay, so what is the correct way of disposal then?"
There’s another rising issue which isn't just about waste generating from healthcare centres. The disease is constantly being spreading beyond hospitals. Most of the patients who have minor symptoms are isolating and recovering at home. While the asymptomatic really don't know that the trash they're throwing could be contaminated! In other words, virus-loaded trash has been generating regularly and is untraceable as is mixed with the municipality waste.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW) is anticipating that an excessive amount of waste is being generated as a repercussion of all the measures we have adopted during the epidemic. The govt. of India and all the ministries have also been doing tremendous work to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. With all-new guidelines, rules & regulations, they have done everything to prescribe the proper disposable of PPEs and Bio-Medical Waste.
After doing my research we decided to focus on the households. However, to begin with, we will the residential colonies, and not the apartments or societies. The reason being that colonies lack the factor of leadership and that why we can notice major problem at this level.
So basically, selling you,your own garbage ... as Recycled Products from Wonderful Organisations like Udit & Recharkha. And even organic foods from the compost.
It's Wayste's one more step to promote organic manure and foods. Just like the dry waste, our users would segregate Wet Waste in the other dustbin. This intial stage of wet waste segregation provides us with infinite opportunities and also reduce the amount toxic substances from electronics and dry wastes; which as a result, would be a valuable compost. Our manure will also be available on the app for household gardening.
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