Today the delegation visited Saahas ‹Zero Waste› Solutions in Bangalore, a company, which aims at solving the waste problem in Bangalore. Saahas has around 70 employees in Bangalore – most of which are women – and collects 1.5 to 2 tons of wet and dry waste every day, either by gathering at households or by public collection points. At these points, people can bring their separated waste or drop off E-waste.
The separated dry waste consists of up to 80 per cent of recyclable goods such as bottles, paper or cardboard. These items are delivered to recycling plants for further processing. For example, old Tetra packs gain a new purpose and are changed into roofing sheets. The wet waste – which consists mainly of organic waste – gets shredded and changed into valuable humus.
Bangalore produces around 3000 tons of waste every day, so initiatives like Sahaas are highly important to reduce the illegal dumped waste in the countryside. To get an impression of Sahaas’ work, the delegation visited a facility outside of Bangalore that collects around 14 tons – or 20 to 23 trucks per day – of wet waste and produces humus as well. This humus is sold to nearby farmers for a affordable price, so not just the environment but also the farmers can profit. In our opinion, this is a very sustainable business model and a good solution to handle the huge amount of waste accumulated day by day.
(Article by Andreas Kurer and Martin Schaub)
More information about Saahas: http://saahas.org