sada zero - how it works

Sada ZeroSadashivanagar

Zero Waste ProgramA community initiative

The earlier waste disposal system

The process

Mixed waste in home Taken in auto to common collection point. Waste collectorswade through pile and recover small amount of saleable material

Transferred to truckSent to dump near Hoskote

The tragedy

WastedWasted

Valuable recyclable material is mixed with wet waste and hence not usable. Less than 10 % is recovered.

Wasted

Wasted

Wasted

Recycled

The people

BBMP contractor's team of 9 people, with 2 autos.Paid Rs. 2400 per month.Work 7 days a week.Work 7 AM to 7 PM with a 2 hour break.No leave.No medical benefits.

Earned Rs. 200 per month from sale of dry waste.

The Sada Zero system

The process

Segregated resource in home

Collected in large bags

Sold to scrap dealerGoes to recycling factory

We no longer call it waste. We call it resource, because it isnow valuable recyclable or reusable material.

Segregation categories

Separation of home waste into:1. Wet waste – from kitchen, garden

2. Dry resource. - Paper + cardboard - Plastic + metal - e-waste + glass

Collection method

Wet waste – collected in dustbin, given to wastecollectors daily, as before1. Kitchen + garden waste2. Bio-medical waste (cotton, sanitary pads, condoms, syringes) wrapped in newspaper.

Dry resource – collected in 3 different bags,given on weekends1. Bag 1- Plastic + metal2. Bag 2 - Paper + cardboard3. Bag 3 – e-waste + glass

Collection in apartment complexes1. Residents store segregated resource in their respective flats for whole week.

2. On collection day morning they dump the resource in 3 drums.

3. Drums are locked the whole week, only opened for a 1-hour window oncollection day.

4. Dumping in drums is under supervison of Sada Zero volunteer, who notesdown the homes that are giving the resource.

The collection Gaadi

Version 1 – too small

Version 2 – too small, heavy

Version 3 - big enough, still too heavy.

Designed to be non-motorized, silent,non-polluting.

The destinationWet waste

Paper & plastic

Same old dump

e-Waste & glass

Ash recyclers

The people - collectors

Same team. Now called resource collectors (RCs).We thought they were the best people – they know the locality, the process, places to sell the resource.

They sell the resource, keep the whole money.

Now earn Rs. 1000 a month each from sale of resource.

Don't have to wade throughmixed waste to recover Resource.They segregate the 3 categoriesinto 10.

The people - volunteers

Residents of Sadashivanagar.

Total around 30 people.

Meet every alternate Tuesday.

Distribute various tasks (enrolling new volunteers, performing skits to educate residents, coordinate with resource collectors..).

Starting on a new streetWe start segregation on a street whenwe have 3 volunteers for it (who need be residents of the street).

Enrol volunteers, train the volunteers.

Map the homes – get house nos., names, mobile nos. on a mapping sheet.

Do a presentation for the residents to explain the Why and How of segregation.Distribute bags to homes.

Decide on a date and time for weekly collection.

Weekly collection system

The day before the collection day, send SMS reminder to homes to keep bags ready.

Till a street hits 65 % 'Full segregation + bags at gate', volunteers walk with Gaadi on collection runs, note down homes doing partial segregation, full seg., 'not at gate'. Typical time 1 month.

After this, volunteers do a 'maintenancewalk' once a month to supply lost bags,record habitual 'not givers'.

Every week's % for various streets isTracked as a graph, put up on internet.

Some rules we follow

Volunteers collect resource personally:- Erase stigma associated with 'garbage'.- Social pressure on people to participate.- Get people involved in civic issues, by example.

System must be self-sustaining, run by resource collectors. Only motivation is money from sale of resource – they keep 100 %.

Should benefit resource collectorsin various ways – health, time, money.

Take things 1 step at a time, in phases.Don't try to fix everything at once.

We don't want to bite off more than we can chew.

Phase 1 : Dry waste segregation in 7 streets (300 homes). Done.

Phase 2 : Extend to 10 more streets. Doing now.

Phase 3 : Stop waste accumulation in streets, from homes and passers by.

Phase 4 : Community compostingof wet waste, leaves.

By now you're thinkingWhy aren't these idiots doing anything about the wet waste ?

Collection % : 'Full segregation + bags at gate' doesn't seem to go beyond 70 %.

Collectors : Still have to micro-manage them on collection days. Issues with punctuality.

Collection vehicle : Still experimenting, trying to make a light-weight, non-motorized, cheap vehicle.

Space : Looking for public place to store collection vehicle, do sorting, store unsold resource.

Some challenges – ideas welcome

All our system documents are available on the internet.www.slideshare/zerowaste