Waste generation in India has soared steeply, mainly as a result of three factors - a large and growing population, rapid and unplanned urbanisation and, perhaps most importantly, swiftly rising consumption levels. However, waste disposal and management infrastructure has lagged severely, creating a massive problem. Heaps of waste are a common sight in towns and cities and the majority goes untreated into landfills - a serious public health risk, environmental hazard and an enormous waste of resources.
ITC's Well-being Out of Waste (WOW) initiative promotes awareness about the importance of source segregation and recycling, and establishes systems to ensure effective practice. It collaborates with local municipalities to train waste workers and rag-pickers in these concepts and to provide an efficient collection system that covers virtually all segments: households, offices, schools, hospitals, commercial establishments, etc.
Proper segregation reduces the amount of waste going to landfills while the dry waste collected provides competitive raw material to several industries, e.g. glass, paper and plastic. Rag-pickers and waste workers also earn higher and more regular incomes.
Along with WOW, ITC is also implementing several other waste management projects along the same lines but tailored to local situations, e.g. promoting home composting or involving women's self-help groups.
Households, Citizens,
Schools,
Corporates
Beneficiaries, Financial Contributors
NGOs
Project Implementation, Domain Expertise, Local Experience
Rag Pickers &
Waste Workers,
Self-help Groups
Beneficiaries, Carry out most activities / Main action takers
ITC
Facilitator, Programme Design, Funding, Monitoring & Evaluation
Urban Local Bodies,
Municipal Corporations
Infrastructure & Implementation Partners
Waste Aggregators &
Recyclers,
Industries
Stakeholders in efficient waste management chain
Road shows, hoardings, pamphlet/flyer distribution, clean up drives, street plays/skits, visits to individual households and commercial establishments
Comprehensive school campaigns to inform and educate children and young people so that they develop awareness and good habits at an early age
Games, quizzes, competitions, events and other interactive activities like forming clubs and celebrating National Recycling Day stimulate interest and help to keep children engaged
Rag pickers / other workers who carry out the service are trained so they understand the importance and benefits of waste management and can communicate this effectively so that families can ensure proper segregation of household waste
Civic volunteers are trained as Community Resource persons to make visits to individual households and convince them to participate in the door-to-door service
Participating households segregate wet and dry waste in the separate receptacles provided
Segregated waste is collected from household and transported to primary collection centres
Wet waste is composted as far as possible. Dry waste is thoroughly sorted for category-specific recycling, mainly paper, glass, metal and plastic
Activities are carried out mainly by trained rag pickers and in some cases by community groups formed for the purpose, e.g. women's self-help groups
These waste workers are trained to check that households are segregating waste correctly, to explain to them why this is important and to communicate the multiple benefits of proper waste management
Waste collection workers check that the household waste is properly segregated during collection and may do some preliminary sorting of dry waste during collection
Dry waste is separated into broad categories at the primary collection centre and sold to Dry Resource Collection Centres where it is thoroughly sorted and then sold to appropriate industries or to larger waste aggregators
Larger waste aggregators often specialise in a single category of waste and can provide the volume and type desired by certain recyclers, e.g. only board packaging or only PET bottles
Rag pickers are engaged in informal employment and are among India's most economically and socially disadvantaged communities in towns and cities
The concept, importance and benefits of proper waste management are the key element in their training so they understand the value of their own role and can communicate the various aspect to other stakeholders and convince them to fulfill their own responsibilities
Training also covers necessary practical requirements and safety measures
The door-to-door collection service provides regular, paid employment and sale of recyclables boosts incomes
Health and safety standards are much better with proper equipment and measures like regular tetanus shots, etc
Gain considerably in terms of social dignity as a result of better public awareness of the vital importance of their role in waste management as well as improved perceptions (gainfully employed, using proper safety equipment, able to explain the importance of the service, etc)
Programme reaches out to all stakeholders - waste generators (households, offices, schools, general public, etc), municipal staff, rag pickers / other waste workers, waste aggregators, waste recyclers
- rag pickers / women's self-help groups to provide door-to-door service
- civic volunteers to enlist household participation
- workshops with apartment block committees to encourage them to institute proper systems in their complexes
Active and close collaboration with urban local bodies / municipal corporations who are primarily responsible for waste management in towns and cities
Collaboration covers manpower and resources such as premises for collection 1
