This presentation explains the basic concept of waste to resource and its need. It also includes some initiatives and best practices in waste to resource at individual, business and community level. This presentation was made by Romil Bajaj as part of a one-day training on Anvaya: Short Film Contest for Environment.

1. Waste to Resource:
Innovations on the ground
Romil Bajaj
Ekonnect Knowledge Foundation
1st August 2015

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3. Need for ‘Waste to Resource’
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Rising Population
Rising
Consumption
Higher Spending Ability
Increase in Waste
Generation
Less Space Availability
Reduce/Rethink
Inadequate Infrastructure for
Waste collection and
treatment.
Reuse/Recycle
Waste to Resource

4. Waste to Resource: Overview
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Waste
Secondary materials/products Compost/ManureEnergy/Fuel
Electricity
Biogas
Building/Construction
materials
Raw material for
primary/secondary
products
Biofertilizer

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6. First Zero Waste Colony in Delhi
Mahila Mandal
Kitchen Garden
Association
Senior Citizens' Council
Local councilor
Municipal staff
Waste contractors
General residents
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•Sarita Vihar, a middle-income residential settlement in South Delhi
•No. of households: 230

7. Action Points and Outcomes
Source segregation and on-site composting was considered as the
best alternative
Economic and environmental consequences of each alternative
List of available alternatives
Capacity Building Workshops
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• After one month's trial period: 2,000 kg of organic waste in the
neighborhood pits (30% participation).
• By the end of the second month, 73.3% residents of the Block were
participating in the programme effectively.

8. Reasons for Success
• Co-operation from the local political representatives.
• Involvement of concerned municipal department.
• High level of participation from the residents.
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9. Organizing the Unorganized
Challenges:
• Issues like sexual harassment, no secure jobs, unskilled, stopped waste
pickers to leave their job of waste/scrap collection.
Solution:
• Foundation of Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP) : Trade
union of waste-pickers in Pune, Maharashtra by Dr. Baba Adhav, President
of the Hamal Panchayat.
• About thirty adult women waste-pickers were issued identity cards by
SNDT University for collecting source segregated scrap in the
neighborhood.
• "Convention of Waste-pickers“(1993): Attended by over 800 waste-pickers.
• As of 2014, it had approximately 10,000 members, both women and men.
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10. Positive Outcomes
• Establishing scrap collectors as "workers" and scrap collection as "work"
• Integration of waste-pickers into the doorstep collection and management
of urban solid waste
• Mobilising around political and social issues
• Change in public perception
Benefits to waste-pickers:
 Improved Earnings: Segregated scrap fetched better rates
 Reduction in working hours
 Improved physical working conditions
 Life insurance claims amounting to almost Rs.5 lakh have been disbursed
since the commencement of the scheme.
 Co-operative Scrap store: Kashtachi Kamai (earnings from labour)
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11. Wonders of waste disposal in Kanpur
• In June 2008, KNN gave a BOOT (build, own, operate, transfer) contract
for processing and disposing of solid waste to A2Z Infrastructure.
• 46 acres of land was given free on a long lease of 30 years for the project.
Plant Components:
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Pre-segregation unit
Composting unit
RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel)
unit
Plastic segregating unit
Briquette manufacturing
unit
Secured landfill in place
Plant to process
1500 tonnes per day
capacity of solid
waste was set up

12. Positive Outcomes
• Minimizing fuel thefts by installing GPS in all the waste collection vehicles.
• Improved earnings, social security and health benefits to waste-pickers.
• Due to integrated waste management approach, very little (around 2%) was to
be deposited in the landfill.
• Kanpur Nagar Nigam received the JNNURM award of excellence for Best City for
Improvement in Solid Waste Management from the prime minister in 2011.
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 In 2010, A2Z Infrastructure, the private company, invested Rs 110 crore of their
own money in setting up a waste-to-energy plant
 The plant produces 15 MW of electricity, using RDF produced in-house
 Plant has been registered with UNFCCC for carbon credits

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14. Fabric from Plastic: Arora Fibres
• Has been recycling discarded plastic bottles into polyester staple fibre since
1994
• Recycles discarded plastic bottles into polyester used as packaging material
• Factory with the capacity to process 18,000 tonnes of plastic a year and
plans to increase that to 48,000
• The industry depends on rag pickers for raw material.
• Applications: Industries like automobiles, used as packaging material for
beverages, food products, pharmaceuticals, and consumer and industrial
products.
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15. The Levis Case: Waste<Less
• Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) approach.
• At least 20% post-consumer plastic recycled content.
• Plastic bottles and food trays are collected from municipal sites, cleaned,
sorted, crushed into flakes and made into a polyester fibre.
• More than 3.6m bottles and food trays for 300,000 Waste<Less jeans.
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16. From waste to wealth- Chennai
• Joint project of 3 colleges in Chennai.
• Plastic waste was turned into the building blocks of their campus.
• Building benches, walls and restrooms using discarded plastic from their
canteen
• Pet bottle brick technology – wherein plastic bottles are filled with mud and
used to build structures.
• Students of the college worked for two months on weekends to build the
benches.
• Nearly 3,000 empty plastic bottles were filled air-tight with mud and sealed
together to build three benches.
• The colleges and the foundation have also tied up with the Taj group of
hotels to get their used bottles.
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17. What comes to your
mind?
How can this be
reused?
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21. Earthship Biotecture: Taos, New Mexico.
• Mike Reynolds: Founder of Earthship Biotecture.
• An earthship is a type of passive solar house made of natural and recycled
materials.
• Based on three basic principles:
i. Sustainable Architecture: Use of indigenous as well as recycled
materials wherever possible.
ii. Independent from the “grid”: Rely on natural energy sources.
iii. Economically Feasible: Average person with no specialized
construction skills should be able to create.
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Learn more on: http://www.earthship.com

22. Sneakers from Ocean Trash: Adidas
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A concept sneaker made almost
entirely out of plastic waste and
discarded fishnets taken from the sea.

23. Sneakers from Ocean Trash: Adidas
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Some of these nets were even confiscated
from poachers by Sea Shepherd
environmental activists

24. Sneakers from Ocean Trash: Adidas
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The nets and ocean trash are turned into fibers that
can be used in various garments
Adidas plans to use these
fibers in their products by
early 2016

25. Some Benefits of ‘Waste to Resource’
 Increased life of landfills
 Resource conservation
 Employment Generation
 Alternate source of energy
 Induce Innovations
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26. THANK YOU !!
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