[Reader-list] Notes from Nayandahalli- Recycling Hub of Bengaluru

Tue Aug 18 09:26:34 CDT 2015

*Exploring Nayandahalli as an Ecosystem Where Waste is Transformed in
Resource
<http://wastenarratives.com/2015/08/18/exploring-nayandahalli-as-an-ecosystem-where-waste-is-transformed-in-resource/>*

*Notes from Nayandahalli*

‘Cities are engines of growth’ is an old cliché statement. For economic
growth and well being of mankind they consume the resources sourced from
faraway lands and release matter termed as waste. It is imperative to frame
the discourse of sustainability in cities around the questions of ‘flow of
matter’ i.e. where is the material coming from and where is it going after
its usage? It is also must to state that hinterland is not always the
resource provider. Cities do sustain each other with the exchange of matter
manufactured in the eco-system of cities. The dichotomy between what is
resource and what is waste is not very clear.  Waste too becomes a
resource. It has inherent value which is evolved over a period of time with
the help of market mechanisms. Recycling, up-cycling and down cycling are
all ways of taking the waste in and transforming it into resource. Provide
the same as raw material for industries dotting urban –rural landscapes.
This is the story of waste and the journey it embarks on before becoming
resource and further, a finished product.

Journey of waste begins in Bengaluru. City is now being termed as ‘garbage
city’ of India. Such a title is not welcome at all. Contradiction comes out
when we mention that Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan ranked it to be one of cleanest
capitals of India. Let us assume that it is comparably clean, but lot needs
to be done.

Bengaluru consumes resources and generates waste like all other cities. It
is estimated that city generates around 3000-5000 tons of waste every day.
Does it all go to the dump yard? Nope! 1050 tons reaches the informal waste
economy. This is an approximate number provided by Hasiru Dala- a
membership based organization of wastepickers and other informal waste
workers.

Hasiru Dala works with wastepickers and scrap dealers for social and
livelihood security. Wastepickers and scrap dealers are important agents of
a process which transforms waste into resource or raw material. Their
livelihood security very much depends on this transformation. From past
two-three years of formal and informal operations we at Hasiru Dala
realized that we are yet to grasp the whole picture of informal waste
economy.

As you must be realizing now, it is turning out to be the story of informal
waste economy. We will be telling anecdotes, tales, life experiences and
narratives of work force in informal waste economy. Story of waste and
people of waste!

We know about door to door collection done by sanitary workers. Informality
and livelihood insecurity in the ‘formal waste collection systems’ leads to
leakage of recyclables. The recyclables reach itinerant buyers. *Kabadiwallas
*also go for collection of waste. They collect materials like glass, metal
and paper on paid basis from residents; provide it to material specific
itinerant buyers. Wastepickers collect waste which has value from
neighborhood black spots (small dumping yards dotting all over the
landscape of the city), streets and even households where door to door
collection is yet to begin and sell it to itinerant buyers. Beyond this
point we were not very clear about the journey undertaken by waste. This
curiosity for knowing the destination of waste forced us to look beyond our
comfort zone i.e. wastepickers and scrap dealers. Continued here…
<http://wastenarratives.com/2015/08/18/exploring-nayandahalli-as-an-ecosystem-where-waste-is-transformed-in-resource/>

*Thoughts on Informal Waste Economy and the Challenges Faced by its Workers
<http://wastenarratives.com/2015/08/18/thoughts-on-informal-waste-economy-and-the-challenges-faced-by-its-workers/>
*

*Notes from Nayandahalli*

*Shreyas Sreenath**

“Often, in the red light of a street-lamp

Of which the wind whips the flame and worries the glass,

In the heart of some old suburb, muddy labyrinth,

Where humanity crawls in a seething ferment,

One sees a rag-picker go by, shaking his head,

Stumbling, bumping against the walls like a poet,

And, with no thought of the stool-pigeons, his subjects,

He pours out his whole heart in grandiose projects.”

–Charles Baudelaire, from Fleurs du Mal (1985, trans. by William Aggeler)

You arrive at the Nayandahalli bus stop to encounter a swirl of dust and
unearthed soil. Standing on the Outer Ring Road, your gaze promptly turns
from the construction below to the remarkable Mysore Road flyover, zipping
above you without a pause to connect the heart of the city to Ramanagara
and Mysore. Right beside is another overpass, this one being the new metro
line that is scheduled to connect the Bangalore University area to
Vijayanagara, and then onto Majestic, the city’s central transportation
hub. One could easily mistake the turbulent waters rushing below, thick in
viscosity, striking in its dark greens and iridescent greys, and emitting a
deeply pungent aroma, for one of Bangalore’s many open sewers. It is only
upon further inquiry that you realize that this is the Vrishabawathi River,
a tributary of the Arakavati. A river which, after sustained intake of
domestic and industrial waste, has acquired a distinctly man-made quality.
Nestled underneath a city consumed by vertical and horizontal growth,
Nayandahalli is one of many small towns and gullies that people pass by
while traveling on main roads, bridges, and flyovers. One seldom notes
their existence; these are places subsumed by greater Bangalore’s growth,
appearing awkward and anachronistic in its midst. However, their very
existence indicates that they occupy a key strategic position in the city’s
developmental aspirations, as areas responsible for managing the tremendous
debris produced as a natural consequence of human progress. From the 19th
century rubbish heaps north of London described so vividly in Dickens’ Our
Mutual Friend, to more recent examples such as the Thilafushi Island in the
Maldives or the Zabbaleen settlements in Cairo, communities that extract
value from waste have played a crucial role in recycling urban debris into
material that cities can use for further growth. Their work has often gone
unacknowledged, even if their actions have often proven politically
decisive.

The relationship that a society has with its wastes can reveal much about
the circumstances of its past and present making, as well as indicate broad
outlines of its future direction. Nayandahalli, as one of Bangalore’s main
hubs for plastic, metal, paper, and cloth recycling, is one such indicator,
a yardstick that epitomizes the relationship Bangalore has with its
detritus, and in many ways, with its own material becoming. Tucked away in
dusty corners, underneath flyovers and metro rails, it is physical evidence
of the strained relationship that a city, in a moment of technophilia, has
with the vast matter it leaves behind, substances with dormant value,
regularly drawn upon for the continuation of urban life. It is a
relationship that subdues communities that engage in waste work, the work
of putting materials into reuse, through active forgetting.

Over the course of our interviews with various recyclers/stockists, I am
struck by how sharply this sentiment is articulated by the various waste
segregators, haulers, and godown operators. “Land,” says Fatima, “is the
most important thing for all of us.” A local activist, she comes from a
family of scrap dealers. Continued here…
<http://wastenarratives.com/2015/08/18/thoughts-on-informal-waste-economy-and-the-challenges-faced-by-its-workers/>

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Regards

कबीर/کبیر

Phone:00-91-96-63-427-315
Email: kabir.postbox at gmail.com
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http://www.hasirudala.in

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