The Indic Society for Education and Development (INSEED)


Recycling in India: Ideas and options against practises and attitudes
India is rapidly moving towards globalisation and adopting many ways of industrialised countries toward improving infrastructure. Now-a-days, advertisements of housing societies/apartment buildings/residential areas with modern amenities are often seen in the newspapers and on television. These amenities include schools, health clubs, parks, clinics among other commonly thought facilities. Nevertheless, what about tonnes of garbage and human waste generated daily? Where will that go and where will it really end up? Should not this question be an issue of concern for laymen? This project tries to find out the avialable recycling options as well as practices and attitudes of people in India.

Period: June 2007 - July 2008

The team:

  1. Sangita Kulathinal, INSEED
  2. Tuula Virman-Ojanen, INSEED

Financial support: There is no financial support for this project and the society plans to fund it on its own.

Aims: The main aim is to provide proper information about objects which are recyclable and how they should be segregated in a household. People ought to be told that with increasing population, recycling is the only way out to stay out of garbage! The project aims to provide guidance to people first about the segregation of the garbage generated on a day-to-day basis at home and then asking them to adopt the segregation practice. It also aims to provide a complete guide on how to make compost out of the biodegradable waste generated at home and reducing the use of items which are not recyclable.

Plan and implementation: The following steps are planned to accomplish the above aims.

  1. Education and public health - To prepare a brochure and a documentary showing different types of garbage items generated as waste and which of them are recyclable. It also includes education on keeping the environment clean by telling about basic civic sense of not throwing waste on the street. The brochures will be distributed in selected households before conducting the information on the amount of various types of garbage generated in the households. The documentary will be shown in government and private schools possibly with the participation of parents.
  2. Environment - To set-up compost bins in households and also garbage bins at public places to keep the environment clean. To encourage people to use paper bags instead of plastic bags.
  3. The undergraduate students will collect the data on the types of garbage generated on a daily basis in households of different kinds after the distribution of the brochures. These data will then be carefully analysed to study how to reduce the waste.
  4. A detailed guide on how to take care of your own waste will be prepared and provided freely on the INSEED website.

Status and outcome: Project completed and report published.

Publications: Articles on Recycling, Composting
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