A recycling festival hopes to get people thinking about waste management.
That there is not enough being done to manage waste is obvious. The evidence is everywhere, be it in small mounds right under signs of “Do not throw garbage here” or in noxious fumes emanating from the piles. But there is also such a thing as green fatigue, thanks to an inundation of messages on conservation. And this is precisely why the Solid Waste Management Round Table was elected to celebrate recycling, rather than have a bunch of seminars and stick posters all over Bangalore to promote awareness about it. “We wanted to make it celebratory and participatory, and highlight some of the positive aspects of recycling as well,” says Jenny Pinto, curator of the first edition of the Bengaluru Recycling Habba which urges people to “Think before you throw”. (Habba is Kannada for festival.)
The habba, which began on the 1st of the month and stretches for a fortnight till November 14, has a host of events covering a broad spectrum, from a panel discussion with experts on the contentious issue of manufacturers’ responsibility of product waste (extended producer responsibility) to a reuse mela where people can exchange unused goods and a posh flea market with designer-made recycled products at Olive Beach. “We wanted to have something for everyone,” says Pinto.
Habba organiser, the Solid Waste Management Round Table, is an umbrella platform uniting various players involved in different aspects of solid waste management, and supported by government bodies like the state pollution control board. “We had all been looking at different sides of the same story so it made sense to come together and work closely,” says Myriam Shankar, of the Clean Bengaluru movement. Clean Bengaluru happened when her husband advised her to make a movement out of her solo effort of cleaning the street outside her house in Banaswadi. She scoffed at the idea but had no choice other than to plunge in when he surprised her by creating a website. The first “event” saw 4,700 people turn up to clean the streets on Independence Day. The habba, she says, coincides with the two-year anniversary of the round table as well as recycling weeks in the US, Germany and Australia. And while Clean Bengaluru was more about promoting awareness, the round table is a fight on all fronts, Shankar adds.
At the habba, you can also discover what happens to your garbage once you dump it in a bin, by signing up for “Trash Trail,” a day-long trip organised by Daily Dump, a firm that helps convert household waste into compost. The walk, conceived as a way to help people get a complete perspective on waste management, illustrates the journey of waste, from your doorstep, to the landfill, and covers all the stages in between. “People usually go home overwhelmed after the walk, and feel motivated enough to do something about it,” says Daily Dump’s Anupama Muralidharan. There is one walk a month, and the ones that are part of the habba are nearly full up, she says. A recyclathon is also under way, where community recycling programmes will be awarded, which has attracted over 400 entries so far, from schools, colleges, companies, resident welfare associations and apartment complexes.
The government agencies, says Shankar, have been very supportive of the round table’s endeavours so far. The BBMP is reportedly gearing up to get citizens to segregate waste at home, and is planning to set up 16 biomethanisation plants. The chairperson of the standing committee on solid waste management, Geetha Shashikumar, has been quoted as saying emphasis will be on segregation at source, with the contractor being responsible for awareness as well.
Such a move will not be a moment too soon: the round table estimates that the city generates 3,500 tonnes of garbage a day, with Rs 400 crore spent every year just to dump it, rather than manage it.
