Over the past nine years, wastepickers’ cooperative Swach has been running a program to help residents reuse waste they otherwise would have difficulty throwing out. Like the principle of thrift shops, Harshad Barde, director, Swach, said unused items donated by people are sold to those who need them so as to increase the lifecycle of such items by a few more years.
Such items include old clothes, household utensils, old electrical and electronic items and toys, among others, that have a shelf life but people are reluctant to throw out for sentimental or other reasons, Barde said. “So, if one has an old washing machine or a broken chair, the wastepicker will not accept it simply due to the logistics involved,” he said. While there are recyclers who buy these items, access to them can be difficult. In 2011, Swach came up with the ‘V collect’ programme, which allowed people to donate these items to Swach, which took the responsibility to reuse and recyle them.
The idea was simple — what does not constitute daily waste can be donated in the ‘V collect’ drives. “Before we started this movement, we carried out outreach programs to sensitize people about the drive. We told them their donation would reach the right people,” he said.
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People donated items like old clothes and disused cables, which Swach sorted for reuse. In their ‘V collect’ shop at the old Aundh Ward office near Bremen Chowk, the shop has a collection of clothes, books, electronic items, utensils and toys.
To make the model self-sustaining, a bare minimum fee is charged when the items are sold, Barde said. While recyclers have a fixed price for every kind of waste, in case of reuse, the system is not so organized. “So, a pair of old jeans can be sold for Rs 100 in this shop,” he said. Electronics items that can’t be sold are sent to the Maharashtra State Pollution Control Board’s authorized recyclers. Whatever little is left from the earnings is diverted into scholarships for needy students.
Over the past few years, the program has formed its own mechanism in which Swach conducts at least six to eight drives over a weekend and up to 25-30 drives per month. Till date, the drive has resulted in collection of 1,21,000 kg of old clothes along with 1,04,000 kg of other material. More than 4,000 kg of old books have also been collected.
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