A game-changer pastime to make citizens waste-conscious

Tackling the City’s trash is now all in the game, with a board game being developed to mirror the waste disposal system. The board represents a simplified version of Bengaluru.

The game could, perhaps, turn out to be the best way to make people responsible towards scientific disposal of garbage, especially segregation at source.

It gives players - four to six in number - a first-hand experience about waste processing and make them understand challenges faced by those working at DWCCs.

To complete one full round, each player takes a chance card. These cards depict reality in a way that can either benefit or affect the individual player or all players collectively (such as garbage lorry strike and rainfall).

In each round, garbage is generated in all wards that includes dry waste, segregated and mixed waste, represented in different colours. There is no limit to the number of rounds. 

The game, called ‘Kaasu Kasa’ or ‘~ubbish!’ – in the Kannada and English versions, respectively – enables players to assume the role of a DWCC manager and tackle the crisis.

It has been developed as a collaboration between Fields of View, Bengaluru; International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-Bangalore) and Media LAB, Amsterdam.

The players’ responsibilities include collection and disposal of dry waste. Each player runs his or her own DWCC, starting with one DWCC in one ward.

Each DWCC manager is given a ward profile card with quantity of waste that can be collected from that ward. The players can only collect the waste that is generated in the wards that have a DWCC.

After collecting and sorting the waste, players can sell it to recycling industries. The remaining waste is dumped at a landfill, created near the board. The players win the game if they create a DWCC in each of the 18 wards selected for the game. They lose if they let the landfill overflow.

“During our research, we visited DWCCs and saw how they function. We felt the need to tell people what it takes to manage these centres.

The game provides a fun way to do this,” said Sruthi Krishnan, researcher with Fields of View, who mentored the team. Based on the feedback from different test sessions, the team is working on final changes to the game, after which they plan to take it to a wider audience.