T here is money in waste if onlyone follows the three Rs ofgreen goodness - reduce, re-useand recycle. That was the over-riding message for visitors to

the hugely-successful BengaluruRecycling Habba 2012 organised byBangalore Mirror Earth Warriors inassociation with the Solid WasteManagement Round Table (SWMRT) atthe SBM Jain College on the weekend.

Sheena F Dhanraj of Shae, forexample, turns discarded liquor bottlesinto quirky and funky flower vases andold newspaper into baskets and coast-ers. Sheena explained that it was herlove for painting that got her convert-ing waste into interesting objects fordaily use. “All I wanted to do waspaint," she said. "I would paint onalmost every surface I could find and Ibegan drawing on bottles. Friendsstarted buying them and that is whenI knew I had a business going."

Glasshopper, a venture that createshome accessories out of scrap, isanother example. Glasshopper wasstarted by Ronson Anthony, a banker-turned-entrepreneur.

“The idea of Glasshopper was bornafter looking at a gift that my wife gota few years ago," said Anthony. “It wasa flattened glass bottle showpiece.Intrigued I found out about it, did a few experiments and before

I knew it, itbecame a

hobby.It soonb l o s -somed

into afu l l -

fledged business.” One of the mostinteresting requests that Anthony gotwas from a newly-married couple whowanted to preserve their first cham-pagne bottle they got as newlyweds.

“I flattened the bottle, slipped a pic-ture of them in it and turned it into awall hanging,” he said.

Kirana, by self-help group BelakuTrust, churns out beautiful jewelleryfrom old newspapers. Pellets of variousshapes made from rolled paper are firstdipped in dye and then in varnish to

make them hard andwaterproof. The beads

are then used tomake earrings andstringed necklaces

that add an extra zing to any ensem-ble. The women in the group alsomake stationary with paper and patch-work toys from scraps of cloth.

Almost every conceivable type ofwaste - wet or dry - can be raw materi-al for a new product. Vani Murthy, aBangalore Mirror Earth Warriorsexpert, explained the nitty-gritty ofwaste segregation to visitors and alsodemonstrated ways to turn wet wasteinto compost.

There were several zero waste com-munities too which participated in thehabba. Renaissance Brindavan inUttahalli revealed how the 125 apart-ments contribute almost nothing tolandfills. A Padmaja, one of the pio-

neers of the initiative, said, “We splitthe team into core, block and floor rep-resentatives. Once the initiative wasstarted we also had weekly audits to seethe outcome. Within months every-one was segregating waste. We sendthe dry waste for recycling while thewet waste is collected by the BBMP.From December 2011 up tillSeptember this year we have collected3,974.8-kg of dry waste, excludingpaper and big bottles.”

Pinky Chandran and MarwanAbubaker, coordinators of RadioActive, a member of SWMRT, said thatthey have collected over 700 tonnes ofdry waste since the start of this yearfrom SBM Jain College.

“Currently we are segregating wastein three centres, but we will soonspread to nine others," said Pinky.

NS Ramakanth, a founder memberof SWMRT, believes that managingsolid waste isn’t such a problem as thecivic authorities make it out to be. Allit needs it a little application.

“If officials have 9,000 sq ft ofvacant land in their ward, they can domany things," Ramakanth said. “Theyshould first get a shredder for gardenwaste. This will reduce waste into tinybits which decomposes faster. A collec-tion centre is also important for storingsorted waste. Finally, each ward shouldinvest in an organic converter that canturn wet waste into compost.”

8BangaloreMirror | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2012

Zoya.Philip@timesgroup.com

www.bangaloremirror.com/earthwarriors

LEFT: Sheena F Dhanraj. ABOVE: A section of the audience at a workshop conducted by experts in solid waste managementOld bottles that have been converted into lamps and clocks

Stalls at the habba featured upcycled products such as stationery and jewellery made from old newspaper

ONE MAN’SRUBBISH...... is raw material for another one’s product as participants at the Bengaluru Recycling Habba 2012 showed

PICS: MUTHU P