Even though I traveled back and forth to Mumbai while keeping my base in Pune, I’ve decided to split up the two cities into their own blog posts for clarity.

Pune reminded me of Bengaluru in a lot of ways. Its citizens seem to be more conscious overall of the waste issues than some of the other places I visited. However, it was in Pune that I really saw for the first time the devastating effects of pollution on India’s holy rivers.

The Mula River runs through the northern part of the city and like most rivers in India had taken on the burden of a lot of the poor waste management practices in Pune and other cities further up-stream.  Drains  and riverbanks clogged with plastics and fabrics were impossible to miss, but aside from the site of pollution, there was also the unforgiving smell. As I took photos and video of the river from the bridge above I noticed that parts of the brown, putrid looking water were roiling or boiling in pockets. When I tried to look up what these might be, the best answer I was able to find was that they were most likely the result of methane gas – a byproduct of decomposing waste – bubbling up from the riverbed. If this is true that would mean that years and years of pollution that have deposited in layers below the river are releasing this green house gas into the atmosphere at a constant rate. As I looked further down the river from my vantage point I could see women in beautiful, colorful clothes, washing their laundry in this toxic river. It made me incredibly sad because I know how much people depend on the river, and yet it is already poisoned.

The rest of my walk consisted of documenting what appeared to be informal dumping sites around the city, where feral pigs did their best to make a meal of whatever they could pull from the mountains of inorganic matter.

Truthfully, my mood hit an all time low in my first few days in Pune because of the plight of the river. However, hope springs eternal, as they say, and a few days into my Pune visit I met an Indian woman who would help me see the light at the end of the tunnel again.

 

 

Rudra Environmental Solutions/ Keshavsita Trust 

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Medha Tadpatrikar, the entrepreneur behind Rudra Environmental and the NGO Keshavsita Trust. Dr. Medha main focus has been on developing a a process to transform plastic bottles back into usable fuels called ‘Gasolysis’.

From their website:

GASOLYSIS is the decomposition of a condensed substance by heating. It does not involve reactions with oxygen or any other reagents but can take place in their presence. The waste plastic is converted in to Poly fuel by process of Catalytic Gasolysis Process. The yield produced is almost 50 to 55% of the plastic waste disintegrated. The process provides an integrated plastic waste processing system which offers an alternative to landfill disposal, incineration, and recycling—while being a viable, economical, and environmentally-responsible waste management solution. The Rudra Process can easily handle plastic that is contaminated with other kinds of waste such as, dirt, water, etc.

As a result, a key advantage of this process is that the plastic wastes do not need to be pre-sorted, cleaned or dried prior to processing, which in turn significantly reduces the overall cost of operation.

The output poly fuel can be further processed in a refinery or used to power low-rpm machines such as electric generation turbines. 

Dr. Medha showed me a sample of the brownish translucent final product during our meeting and I was very intrigued. The discussion quickly turned to how all these plastics are gathered. It was here that Dr. Medha confessed that the small scale of their operations was still one of the biggest barriers to the technology having a larger impact. As of our meeting, the company only had a handful of employees. They have developed a monthly collection route that customers can sign up for (the service is free). They schedule pickups of people’s separated plastics and use their personal vehicles for transportation. Dr. Medha emphasized that the first goal is to get people into the habit of separating and acknowledging the value of recycling plastics. Any plastics her customers wish to sell by traditional means (to waste pickers for example) she encourages them to do so. But any plastics that that can’t be sold, she agrees to take. It is her that the machines her company is developing will be adopted by larger industries in order to take on the very large problem of plastic litter.

She was full of enthusiasm and optimism, but also a realist. I found I related to her a lot. I look forward to following her company’s progress.

 

Pune Municipal Corporation / Excel Industries

After my visit with Dr. Tadpatrikar, I spent a few days in Mumbai with Excel Industries, a leader in the development of large scale composting equipment. However, I as I mentioned above I will speak about Mumbai in my next post. After my return from Mumbai, I still had a few days scheduled in Pune and I had the opportunity for two more educational meetings.

Excel Industries had put me in contact with one of their representatives working in at a public waste management facility operated by the Pune Municipal Corporation. I met up with Mr. Nilesh Bhagat who oversees one of three large facilities in Pune that collect and process organic waste after separating out the dry waste.

I was given tour of the facility and shown how the composing machinery works. I also saw how time consuming and tedious the process of separating mixed waste can be. While most organizations and municipalities continue to stress the importance of separating waste at home, efforts to separate the mixed waste at large facilities is also being attempted with limited success. Unfortunately, at leas with this facility in Pune, the separation process is entirely manual. A few workers hunch over piles of mixed waste and meticulous dig through by hand in order to remove the largest chunks of inorganic matter. Mr. Bhagat acknowledged the insufficiency of the process, showing me a handful of processed compost that still had shredded candy wrappers in it. This is what is called low quality compost – usable but not ideal. It also sells for even less than high quality compost. The compost made at this facility is used by the city for public gardens or sold to interested buyers like farmers.

Mr. Bhagat explained that the larger plastics were not the most problematic because they are valuable for recycling and easy to remove from compost. The problem plastics are the candy wrappers and food packaging which shred easily but are not valuable for recycling purposes. These are the plastics that remain in landfills and get caught up in compost.

 

Swati Pednekar – Community Leader and Waste Warrior 

For my final meeting I was put in touch with an inspiring personality through my connections with Excel Industries. Mrs. Pednekar, an Anthropologist by training, has taken up the cause of waste management on a local level through community outreach and education. Her concerns aren’t limited to humans but also extend to the effect of waste on street animals, dogs in particular. She has taken up their cause, endeavoring to educate people on the harmful effects of litter on all life. Through her community work, she has managed to forge a relationship with the Pune Municipal Corporation in order to provide regular waste pickup to various neighborhoods in the city. Swati’s method involves getting individual communities to address the specific needs of the households in a given area, so that each section or block can decide as a group what waste management solutions work for them. She also works with waste pickers and street cleaners in these areas, setting them up with supplies, uniforms and ID cards so that the community begins to feel they can put more faith in them. Also, she informs them about their legal rights so they they can organize if they choose in order to demand better wages and fair treatment.

I could have spoken with Swati for hours, but it was just my luck that my stomach had begun to give me trouble during our meeting. It was a last minute meeting that ended up being one of the most enjoyable and insightful.

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Next week I write about my experiences in Mumbai, which included a radio interview!

 

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If you are interested in learning more about the companies and organizations listed in this post, please visit the links below:

Rudra Environmental Solutions: http://rudraenvsolution.com/

Excel Industries Ltd. : http://www.excelind.co.in/ 

Swati Pednekar Twitter : https://twitter.com/swatibytes