Treating garbage in a sustainable way

Ever thought what happens to your household garbage once you dump it? Or knew that the left outs from your dinner plate are generating methane and increasing the green house effect?

In an attempt to answer these questions, and take the government’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan a step further, a group led by an IIT-Delhi alumnus have launched ‘I Treat My Garbage’, a service which provides a solution to treating garbage in a sustainable and environment-friendly manner.

Launched in September, the group describes the initiative to be an “oath every individual should take in order to make our surroundings neat and clean”. The main idea, they say, is to facilitate and empower the individual household for treating its
own garbage.

“Swachh Bharat Abhiyan talks about promoting cleanliness which cannot be achieved without treating the garbage. Otherwise, we are just transferring the garbage from one place to another, later dumping in the landfills,” Sandeep Garg, the brain
behind the initiative, tells Metrolife.

Garg adds that even if an individual wants to put an effort towards treating their own garbage and reduce the load on landfills, he can’t do it without getting his hands dirty and spending significant time on it. “We have come up with a model for these responsible citizens where we charge a subscription monthly fee and process their garbage at our decentralised facilities,” he adds.

The biogas generated as a result of garbage processing is used to generate electricity and run the street lighting for the block near their processing facility in Ghazipur.

Explaining the process, Garg says they follow a prepaid model in which households get a packet of 60 garbage bags (30 green and 30 blue) on the payment of a monthly fee of around Rs 200. The green bags are exclusively for kitchen garbage while the blue ones are for the rest.

“Every day you need to put the (respective) garbage in these colour-coded bags and keep them outside your house. Our pick up agent will come at your preferred time to collect them and will transfer them to our nearest facility, where after preliminary segregation the garbage is processed. You are welcome to visit the facility any time and get assured that your garbage is being processed in the most environment-friendly manner,” says Garg.

In addition to doing their bit for the environment, the households get free bio manure delivery at their doorstep for in-house plantation, an ‘I-Treat-My-Garbage’ sticker for their main door, swachhta points against monthly subscription (which can be redeemed at various brand chains), and above all, the “feeling of being a responsible citizen”.