Project Lead(s): Parag Gupta
Issue
More than 50% of India’s urban population lives in small cities and city administrators do not have the resources to adequately deal with waste management.
Waste management in India has long been an inefficient, centralized operation and the system often breaks down, especially when solid waste management operators and municipalities accept poor collection of waste.
Recent regulation, particularly in Bangalore, has opened opportunities for innovative new approaches.
Solution
Waste Ventures sought to develop and monitor ways to scale new waste management interventions using mobile technology, especially where waste managers (e.g., waste pickers) are involved.
Key activities included:
· Establishing ‘van-units’ for waste collection – supported by mobile technology, these van-units of 4–5 waste pickers were established to provide waste collection services to households, with data entry into the mobile platform ‘I Got Garbage’
· Piloting a ‘Donate Dry Waste Program’ – the team sought to pilot how a mobile app could be used to source donated recyclables
· Using mobile technology to support business intelligence on Total Waste Management – for this service, mobile technology was used to streamline customer interaction, such as generation of invoices on the basis of quantity of waste generated
· Launching Nano Stores (aka Last-Mile Stores), powered by an app.
Outcome
During the grant period, the Donate Dry Waste Program resulted in the collection of 99 metric tons of dry waste received for free from 2,100 waste generators across eight wards in the city. This provided income for 15 waste pickers.
This was supported by the ‘I Got Garbage’ app that enabled waste pickers to geotag the households that were donating waste.
Waste Ventures is increasing the variety and volume of waste collected and averted from dumpsites and, by directly partnering with and employing the informal sector, they are both reducing the health hazards to the poor and improving environmental outcomes.
Waste Ventures intends to apply for Transition To Scale (TTS) funding to expand the scale of operations.