It was a cold Early morning of Jan 25th 2009, a Sunday
Zero waste management project visit
- Naveen Nataraj
It was a cold Early morning of Jan 25th 2009, a Sunday. Street lights were still On (Well, sometimes they remain ON, even after the sunlight gets ready for a battle with them). Eleven of us (included 2 kids) planned to have a day well spent Sunday. The tempo traveler left Bangalore and headed towards Vellore on the high misty highway. A quick introduction amongst the people, their interests helped in knowing each other a bit. Couple of active Aid-India members amongst us gave an overview of AID activities. One of us was ready with Handy cam to capture the activities. It was a wonderful view on the toll way with flowers all along the expressway. After Ambur, a deviation & a turn at Pallikonda would lead us to our first site. Oh! I haven’t told you about the Agenda? We had a bird’s eye view of this trip. We would visit some project sites implementing Zero Waste Management. To give a quick intro to the term, it meant managing & recycling garbage to ensure nothing is a waste (It’s “Zero waste”). There is an expression in kannada which says “Kasadinda Rasa”, simply meaning “Treasure out of Trash”) & we would witness that at those sites. Our guide would be C.Srinivasan who has dedicated his effort & time to waste management projects & to create environmental awareness.
Note: Across this write-up I have included some points to note & ponder about. It will be in Red italics
Black bold refers to cycle or process
Site # 1
Along SH-127, we took a right at Gudiyattam towards the first site where we met C.Srinivasan. The agenda for the day was shared with us. First site was “Ruhsa Dept. CMC Hospital”. Here there is solid waste management & income generation out of trash. How it is done is an interesting deal. Long back this whole site was a cattle dairy yard. But eventually without any management, this ceases to be so. Now, some cattle have been got by supporting funds. A region of this yard is dedicated for waste management. There are some 8 – 10 women employed in this project.
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It is a self-sustained project where one person manages the site & the income generated is used for monthly salaries & other costs to constantly improve the site. Some activities at this site include.
1. Waste segregation & usage: All municipal & other wastes are collected at this site. First level sorting includes sorting into 17 categories. These items can further be sorted to 132 identifiable items. Sorting includes categories like plastic bottles, bottle caps, covers, inked papers, printed papers, computer papers, thick bond papers, et al (More details at ).
All workers here are vaccinated & well treated. There is regular health checkup. Employees are provided with special medications to ensure zero infections due to garbage. If there is segregation at the source itself, it would be so easy for our fellow beings (
The plastics & paper that is sorted out are then dumped into huge carry covers which will then be carried onto the vendors who use it for recycling. This generates money.
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*** Looking at the way garbage plastic gets recycled, we all almost decided never to use plastic cups for anything (Definitely not for food usage)
*** At the DKM College for women every student is contributing 50 ps/day which turns to a huge amount of Rs.30, 000/month that is utilized in waste management & other activities.
2. Compost creation: Cattle output is consolidated at one site & is dumped at a shaded location. The vegetable & other residues are fed to the cattle and the cow dung will be used here. All the organic wastes are dumped and are constantly stirred to ensure there is no smell (The area was indeed not smelly). The cycle is simple.
Vegetable/organic waste -> Food to cattle -> Cow dung -> Mixed to other wastes & stirred (Aeration) -> Put earthworms -> Earthworm feed on wastes -> Earthworm output will come up -> Compost ready!!
Earthworm eggs will get hatched due to the cow dung heat which will lead to new worker earthworms ( The cycle continues. Thus the compost is an output from the body of the earthworm. Totally organic!
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Water is trickled through the setup & collected below. This can be used for plants instead of water. These people package the compost & sell it to the middle men @ just Rs.2 per pack (Which of course is sold at a higher price to customers by middle men)!!! Wish somebody could start a compost business & give these people a fair price for their effort.
***1 liter of this water is approximately as powerful as 10 liters of normal water!!
*** They are given just Rs.2 per pack of compost!! Someone could definitely take it up; pay them at least what they deserve and still sell the high quality bio compost with profit!
*** We expect things to be organized and sorted well, everywhere!! Why not when we dump garbage? We could actually segregate and dump it?
Site # 2
From there we left to the “National environment management training & research centre”. This was a huge cool setup that can be house nearly 100+ people for any seminars/get togethers.
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The specialty of this building is that it is completely portable & eco-friendly. By “Portable”, it means the whole building can be dismantled and all the materials re-used; Unlike the cement glued bricks which cannot be re-used and they are broken to dismantle from main structure. Cement & paint not used at all. Only bituminous tar used. Stones are used to support the basic structure base of the building. It does not have foundation. Jack roof system (Layered roofs) used to ensure cool air. The hot air goes up when there is cooler air from different openings (Windows?). The hot air is thus dissipated out. Ford, Delhi sponsored for this building. Lamp shades are made of ice cream sticks by differently able children (They look stunning)
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There is a small dais which is made of only hardened mud. There is a scrap iron framework which was a window before. This is used as the building’s gate. Creepers will be grown over the outside building fence to ensure cool air. The whole setup is on a 4.5 acres land with a long lease.
A eco-friendly kitchen is being setup & there is a small residential (to stay back) complex being planned. This will help in one full setup where there can be seminars in eco-friendly environment. Food also being eco-friendly (Vegetables, fruits, honey, nearly 20 delicious items). This has cost them just Rs.96/sq.ft (
We all had some poses with the tricycle that is a part of zero waste management. A colorful tricycle with UNICEF logo, talks about green wastes and red wastes (Differentiate bio-degradable and the other one).
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*** Instead of having meetings or seminars in some high profile resorts, we could have it in this place amidst total eco-friendly environment!
*** Srinivasan is planning to have a kalyana mantap (Marriage hall) which is totally eco-friendly. Palm trees supporting on all sides and within, canopy of trees which act as the roof, natural solar lightings, natural plant fencing to differentiate different regions of the hall, and total healthy, eco food!
From there we headed towards the third site. On our way, we had amazing fresh fruit juice (Each of us tried nearly 3 types of fruit juices :D) made without any chemicals. It was totally organic (When I say organic it was “Organic”. The fruits were grown in total organic manner. Fruit wastes were fed to cattle owned by the juice shop. And the cattle milk was used in milk shakes) [pic]
Site # 3
Next site was Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT). At this location complete hostel & college wastes were dumped and segregated. Some highlighting points of this site are.
1. This project supports nearly 36 people. It is completely self sustained unit. College does not pay anything. Income is generated from the waste. This money is the source for salaries and upgrading the waste management unit.
2. Godowns are present to store & segregate the wastes. Huge piles of wastes dumped are sorted and put in big carry bags to be sold to recycling vendors.
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3. Every month nearly Rs.1 lakh+ is got by selling the segregated wastes. This money will be utilized within the employed unit for salaries and excess is used for upgrading tools. Year end, nearly Rs. 4 lakhs+ is got per month!!
4. Mostly differently abled people are working on this project. And the unit head is a differently abled person who got in from grass root level of segregating the wastes. Walking up the ladder, he now heads the unit and is responsible for creating new employment & future leaders.
5. There is a bio-processing unit as well within the campus. This setup is situated next to the waste management unit. All the vegetable and food wastes from the hostel and canteen acts as a food to the herd of campus cattle. The cattle output is the source for this bio-processing unit, which follows the similar cycle as mentioned earlier. Cattle milk products are being used within the canteen & college.
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6. Nearly 8 tonnes of waste per day accounting to close to 250 tonnes of waste in a month. By year end there are lot many books that are dumped by students as waste. Now they have started collecting the books which could still be utilized for a different purpose rather than sorting as one of the wastes!
This image is about one time load of wastes. Per day nearly 7 such loads are accumulated.
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*** Cattle here were rescued from slaughter houses and are doing well & are healthy. They are expecting more cattle from a Jain leader who has promised to rescue another 100+ cattle from slaughter houses.
*** There is a specialized exam for people to involve in zero waste management projects. It is the “Grass root level consultant” exam consulted by the VIT
Site # 4
Next was the much awaited Vellore bus stand. We wanted to visit that place after listening to Srinivas’ story about how things were changed for better here & how the same lost rhythm due to bureaucratic mess up.
3 years ago, it’s last status was a juice factory land which served no purpose to any individual or society. For 18 years it was just a sealed area covered by bushes without any maintenance (Ofcourse, things added to the public woes when people started using that as the dump yard for garbage. It was a real deal during rainy season).
Collector during that period one fine day declared it as “Bus stand”. To bring good quality to bus stand 35 persons were appointed (This was the first step in what we see as a great project helping in self sustained employment, revenue, public hygiene, etc). This bus stand acted as a zero waste managed site. All wastes within the bus stand were recycled inside itself and nothing moved out of the compounds.
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*** This gave job for 118 women (40% of them were differently abled). A point to stress here, “Garbage from a bus stand in a small place like vellore gave job for nearly 120 people & the whole set up was self sustained!!
1. Cattle shed was setup next to the bus stand with a small yard with lots of pretty ducks. Well what were the ducks doing there? Here is the plan.
Bus stand urinal waste -> Dilute with other liquid wastes -> Ducks flap & Aerate -> Bubbles that come out dilute it further -> Waste deposits below with water on top -> fodder sprayed with the water -> Compost manure as well ready!! -> Fodder Fed to cattle -> Milk products being used within the bus stand hotel -> Cycle continues!
2. Other wastes within the bus stand were sorted (using same technique as employed in other sites) & revenue generated out of them. A separate unit for solid and liquid waste management was another highlight of this site.
3. This project employed nearly 120 people (40% differently abled) working for “Pay and use” toilets, cattle shed, garbage sorting, etc.
4. A well planned rain water harvesting system was in place for this site. A small kitchen which fed all employees was at a strategic location near the cattle shed.
5. A completely self-sustained employment plan & clean bus stand were the boons for Vellore. Of course bonus was a beautiful flower garden which had its manure from the wastes of bus stand.
6. Total income from the whole project was nearly 4.5 lakhs/month. In 39 months Rs.1.37 crores was the number tagged with this successful project!
Well, all good things come to an end?? This bus stand moved from collector’s capacity to municipality. Immediately all employed here were out of job. Tenders were called for private firms to maintain the bus stand. Finally after moving the court, it was decided that this group of 118 women employed here would pay nominally as part of tender agreement. On the day (As per court judgment) when the application was to be signed and submitted to the new collector, he was missing from his office & returns back once the stipulated submission time got over!!! Clever huh? Last we heard, this case was still in court & judgment awaited, justice due for the self employed group!
Well, what’s happening with the cattle shed?? With no money to maintain, fodder costs being higher than affordable by this group all cattle have become so weak with bones showing up & the cattle shed practically shut down from past 4 months! Well cobwebs tell a tale!
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A heart breaking collage of weak cattle images within the shed.
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With a heavy heart not able to understand whom to blame, we left the site after closing the gate behind us! We headed towards our next visit on agenda.
Site # 5
Our next visit was Srinivas’ house where we would witness roof top garden. We got a warm welcome by his family, a refreshing tea, and walk through the roof top garden, a look at the small compost creating unit at his roof (This is where all his kitchen wastes would go and give out manure to his roof top garden!)
After all that we sat down to look at the photos of completely eco friendly wedding of Srinivas, huge collection of flora photos, descriptions, some statistical slides and lot more.
All the pots where plants were grown were kept on wooden logs. These logs were placed 1 ft on top of the roof exactly in line with the walls of the house. Keeping pots on wooden logs helped avoid the moist or dampness between the pot and the roof.
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Thanking Srinivas, we took his leave. We were directed towards the last site on agenda “CMC hospital”.
Site # 6
This project was a big one & successfully running one. Of course there’s a catch. Srinivas did not accompany us. Reason? Sometime ago, his friends had caught hospital management smuggling nearly Rs.2 lakh worth medicines through garbage (During the garbage sorting process( ) And that triggered a unpleasant chain of arguments which has kept him out of that site for sometime now.
*** Well, people know how to loot public money (and medicines!!)
Anyways, I’ll talk about the highlights of this site.
1. Nearly 8 tonnes of garbage/day.
2. This site is generating huge revenues out of garbage to sustain close to 250 employees.
3. Garbage is sorted based on its type. Covers, bio degradable, solid liquid wastes, metal wastes. Plastic covers again could be wet or dry covers. All this segregation finally leads to sorted garbage out of the hospital (Revenue generation follows!)
4. Different tricycles get all garbage from doctor’s quarters.
*** We got to know from the employees there Carbon paper, chocolate papers and thermocole cannot be recycled
5. All other wastes go to the bio processing unit of this site.
6. Very well planned & managed site with 17 groups of employee working full time in a self-sustained environment.
7. All employees here work in a well protected & safe manner with good quality gloves, face masks, etc provided.
8. Separate storage units were available for rubber, metal, paper wastes.
9. All these segregated wastes were then sold to different vendors dealing with different kinds of recyclable materials.
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This was another example of very well managed zero waste management site with bio processing unit, waste segregation unit, segregated waste storage unit, plastic cover sorting site, safe working environment for its employees, et al.
*** When this is possible in one such hospital, imagine what could be done in all hospitals which just throw away the wastes rather than creating employment and revenue out of it!!
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After all these sites, our tired group made our way back to Bangalore with lots of thoughts, learning on our mind. Most important of all is how we take our learning forward, educate people, implement such projects in our cities and take our land towards total waste management. And this write-up is just the first small step towards that!!
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