igotgarbage.com ushers in a paradigm shift in waste management and helps both the environment and the waste collectors

Most of us living in the comforts and confines of our homes never give a second thought to what happens to the waste once we dispose it off. While we are quick to buy new things, what happens to the old ones or how they are disposed off? How do the waste collectors segregate this waste and dispose it is never a topic of discussion.

Increasing urbanisation and population growth leads to even more waste production, stressing the already brimming landfills, resulting in a waste management crisis. Take the case of Bangalore, where nearby villages such as Mavallipura and Mandur protested and blocked the access of the garbage trucks to landfills in their area, leading to garbage pile-ups on the city’s streets. Or the recent floods in Chennai, which brought a lot of garbage on the shores of the sea, and elsewhere. To top it all, rag/ waste pickers work in hazardous and inhuman conditions.

They have to deal with dangerous chemicals, metals or unhygienic materials while trying to eke out a living by collecting and segregating waste. Most of these people are illiterate and untrained, and a majority of them end up suffering from skin and respiratory diseases and even cancer as they get exposed to chemical poisoning or infections caused by biological waste. Not the least, a human being’s right to live with dignity is also compromised.

Seeing their condition, Subroto Bagchi, chairman of MindTree, a leading IT services company, mooted the idea to use IT as a tool to improve the life of rag pickers. It all started when Bagchi organised a waste trail for the Princess of the Netherlands, where he was moved by the plight of waste pickers.

THE SEED OF THE IDEA

The task to study the whole garbage cycle and come up with a solution was given to Prashant Mehra, the associate vice president, social inclusion, MindTree. Mehra is a company veteran with 16 years of experience. Using his understanding of the micro-business models, he introduced I Got Garbage (IGG), a cloud-based platform aimed to simplify waste management and transform rag pickers into an entrepreneur through a structured and governed waste management framework beneficial for the rag pickers, which was a key to effective waste management.

“IGG aims to not only improve the waste management situation, but to take rag pickers away from scavenging, and bring them to the source of waste as an entity and help them get better returns for their hard work,” Mehra points out. Since most of the offices, institutions, apartments and hotels constitute bulk waste generators and the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is not expected to serve them, it opens a wide field for them to provide services under IGG. From a being at a lower rung of the waste management cycle, they are invited to take on a leadership role and evolve as entrepreneurs in the city’s waste collection.

IGG was formally launched in Bangalore in June 2014, in collaboration with Hasiru Dala, a waste picker member-based organisation. “Our primary goal is to help cities manage solid waste better, through a proven and inclusive methodology that involves waste pickers, authorities, and communities, with technology providing the backbone. IGG has been developed/ funded as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative,” Mehra explains.

Today, the IGG solution has impacted a network of close to 8,000 rag pickers, recycling 5000 tonnes of waste generated from close to one lakh waste generators.

THE MANY BENEFITS OF IGG

IGG services are delivered free of cost to municipalities. It is powered by the platform “Bridge”, which provides a gamut of capabilities such as programme management, governance, enterprise operations, online marketplace, community engagement, workforce mobilisation, and analytics and reporting, with multi-lingual support.

The initiative has not only helped make an impact on the lives of rag pickers, but also ensured that less waste goes to the landfills. The IGG solution can be used by a city administrator looking for a sustainable waste management solution or for municipality facing governance issues in day-to-day waste collection. It even helps in data management and measuring the impact of your initiatives. While the authorities provide good governance, IGG delivers a unique blend of micro-business models and technology that helps cities manage waste like never before. It has a real-time location tracking enabled for digitally controlled and highly efficient waste management operations, which makes it easy for volunteers, citizens, and waste collectors.

Under IGG, the company equips the waste workers with budget smartphones, through which they can check the maps and find out where they need to make pickups. The offices and households can sign up on igotgarbage.com, and get their garbage collected for free. The only condition is to sort out the waste into two bins — recyclable and organic waste — which results in a quick turnaround time for the waste picker. Since, IGG already has a database of all rag pickers and their locations, they can quickly assign them with the routes maximising their efficiency and in turn resulting in more being recycled. The same holds true for buyers; a rag picker can check the tags to see which buyers are located in her area and cut the downtime on selling the recyclable waste to the buyer.

For Hasiru Dala, the advantage has been a seamless management of the bio-data and profiling of its network of more than 7,000 waste pickers. Considering they have such a large network of people, IGG helps in keeping a record of their leaves, absences and even monitor the dry waste collection center DWCC in real time.

ZERO-WASTE WARD

IGG closely works with city schools and design student engagement programmes to drive awareness and action in waste management. “We believe that early involvement in social issues can transform students into a future generation of problem solvers, thus fostering a culture of possibilities and belief among children,” he says. Through digital engagements, field study and hands-on activities, students discover innovative solutions and undergo a powerful behavioral change, become consciously aware of their habits and take those learnings home.

For waste pickers, the benefit has been lesser working hours, increased income, better waste handling conditions, more recyclable waste and a sense of ownership towards their ventures.

After seeing the success of IGG, Mehra plans to use this IT platform to support micro-businesses and social enterprises, as well as helping to incubate businesses in these areas. By the end of 2016, the mission is to launch operations in 50 Indian cities. It is currently engaged with the municipalities of Pune, Varanasi, Indore, Pondicherry and Bhubaneshwar, to name a few.

Mehra’s aim is to achieve a zero-waste ward/ city model, where the entire waste generated is segregated and processed in a decentralised and eco-friendly manner. Achieving this in reality takes a highly integrated approach with factors such as technology, infrastructure, delivery model, community engagement, and governance playing a vital role. Although Mehra is confident with his offering, the cleansing has to start from within.