BackCelebrating waste
Celebrating waste
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Bangalore generates 3,500 tonnes of garbage every day and spends Rs402 crore every year to dump that waste, according to the Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT) Bengaluru. To find ways to manage and deal with this waste, the SWMRT, supported by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and the Karnataka high court legal services committee, is presenting the city’s first Bengaluru Recycling Habba 2011. The SWMRT is a collective of organizations and people dedicated to waste management—it was formed in October 2009.
At least 25,000 households in the city have been introduced to waste segregation over the past two years via SWMRT, and it is working to increase that number every day. There will be several conferences and workshops during the festival, and the organizers have also set up several exhibitions and stalls that reflect the philosophy of sustainable waste management.
One can pick up waste-inspired lighting products designed by Bangalore-based artists at “Alternate Current" (4 November) at Olive Beach, or visit the “Mela in Mall" at Mantri Square mall, Malleswaram, where issues of solid waste management, and solutions, will be dealt with. Stationery, toys, bags, jewellery and home accessories made from recycled materials will be on sale too. You can also take a tour that follows the trail of our trash to the landfill and the recycling market in an event organized by Daily Dump—which makes containers for converting household and office waste into compost—on 9 November and 11 November. “In a day-long tour, we make people go through the direct experience of what happens with their trash—the economic facet and the people who work on recyling the stuff they carelessly dispose without segregating," says Poonam Bir Kasturi, the founder of Daily Dump, adding that often people emerge with changed minds on recycling. “There is, you see, a difference between visiting a landfill and seeing a picture of it," explains Kasturi, who will also be organizing a workshop for children that will help them to understand the role of insects in garbage (12 November).
“Most children don’t know about things they can’t see. In the workshop, we expose them to insects that govern our existence, and help them get over the fear of these bugs. With this, encouraging composting at home becomes easier," says Kasturi. The festival will also include a Re Flea Market (9 November), where a range of products created by recycling plastic, tetra packs, glass, cloth and tins will be sold at Olive Beach, and the ReUse Mela at Yelahanka New Town, where Bengaluru ReUse has teamed up with The Rotary Club of Bangalore Yelahanka to organize a mela (6 November and 13 November)—people can come here to exchange their unused household and personal items.
For the schedule and more details, visitwww.swmrt.com
pavitra.j@livemint.com
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