Kachra. Garbage. Trash. Waste.

That pile of trash outside your house, that mountain was actually a landfill, the millions of tonnes of swirling plastic in the ocean, and the waste which travels from your dustbin to a river and into the ocean – this is our realm.

We are the Kachrewaale.

The Kachrewaale Foundation was preceded by The Kachrewaale Project (TKP), which gave it its name. The idea behind creating this foundation was to have an organisation dedicated to understanding and working on the problems of waste, habitat destruction, and climate change, especially in ecologically fragile areas that otherwise do not get such attention.

What is waste?

In nature, nothing goes to waste. Leaves fall and they become compost on the jungle floor, insects die and animals defecate and that nourishes the soil, giving life to plants. Whales die and they are eaten by other marine creatures, plants release oxygen and that is a life force for several creatures, including humans. Nature is a true circular economy in function. Everything is transformed and never wasted.

What is waste then?

Anything that was created for a particular function, and is discarded because it cannot be used for that purpose again, can be called waste. However, when it is discarded, it does not simply nourish the environment; it creates problems. For instance, when food is thrown away in a landfill, it releases methane which acts as a greenhouse gas for global warming. It is estimated that methane emissions from landfills account for about 11% of global methane emissions. When it comes to India, the country ranks third in terms of overall waste generation and landfills account for a third of the country’s total methane emissions. However, these figures, especially those from India do not take into account small-scale illegal burning and dumping that is rampant all over India, from the smallest of villages to the largest of cities.

In this way, food has turned into waste. If the same food was composted, and returned to the soil, it would not be waste. Plastic created for any purpose is almost always discarded, often after single use, such as polythene bags. Once discarded, such plastic does not biodegrade into smaller components or provide nourishment in any form. Rather, it has a tendency to release toxins into the environment, thereby polluting already scarce resources like water, soil, and air. India alone produces nearly 35 lakhs (3.5 million) tonnes of plastic every year, large quantities of which find their way into the ocean through rivers like Ganga, Narmada, Yamuna, Brahmaputra, etc. 

Once waste reaches the ocean, especially plastic waste, it kills and endangers marine life when it is mistaken for food. This disrupts the ecosystem of the oceans, and in turn that of humans too. The same plastic that goes from the Ganga to the Bay of Bengal, lands up in our plates as seafood.

What do we do with waste?

The best way to manage waste would be to not have any waste in the first place! However, that ambitious vision will take time to be implemented. Until then, our aim is to ensure that systems are set up so that the maximum quantity of waste can be processed in the best manner currently available to us. To make this possible, we have the skills and expertise to create, or to support other organisations and government bodies in creating strategies, right from segregation of waste at source to its final processing, recycling, or disposal. We engage with all relevant stakeholders, like local communities, government bodies, recycling agencies, etc. to design and implement such waste management systems and tailor them as per the needs of a particular geography, terrain, culture, or community. 

To work towards our vision of zero waste, we hold workshops with different stakeholders, especially children, to help them understand why waste is a problem and how we can produce less waste. In the process, we almost always learn something about waste from the community itself. 

Who do we work for?

We work as much for human communities plagued by the problem of waste, as for wildlife and plant life that is endangered or deeply impacted by improper waste management. 

Our focus areas:

Kachrewaale Foundation likes to take up challenges in areas which do not get attention for their waste problem due to any number of factors. For instance, TKP was implemented in rural Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where the geography and isolation of Neil Island had made it extremely difficult to set up a waste management system. Similarly, other challenging areas could be distant, ecologically fragile areas, rural areas, tourist spots, etc. 

We believe that as our journey goes forward, our understanding of the problem both develops and transforms. A significant method for this is to look at waste from a multi-dimensional perspective and ask questions like – How is waste related to other aspects of life, such as culture? How is waste related to the field of medicine? What does waste have to do with education, fashion, health, etc.?. As we seek the answers to these questions, and enhance our understanding of the problem further, we work to share that journey with others as well.

Key expertise: 

• Plastic waste management: Setting up the appropriate systems to manage each of the different kinds of plastic waste. 
• Baseline studies: To counter the dearth of data regarding waste in small towns, rural areas, tourist places etc we conduct baseline studies to get a sense of actual levels of waste generation in a given area. 
• Designing end-to-end strategies: From source segregation and transportation, to storage and recycling of waste.
• Creating specialised strategies: Catering to different geographies, terrains, and communities.
• Stakeholder management: To bring in all necessary infrastructure, support systems, and agencies to manage waste and/or to provide support in conserving habitats.
• Community engagement: Creating, spreading, or increasing awareness among people and different stakeholders to manage waste at different levels. This can be done for schools, colleges, institutions etc. 
• Marine Litter: We go beyond regular beach clean ups by ensuring that all recyclable waste collected during such clean ups is sent for processing. We also have the expertise to conduct baselines assessments for marine litter. 
• Curating content: To deepen the understanding of the problem of waste from a holistic, multi-dimensional approach. 
• Reducing waste: Enabling individuals and organisations to reduce their plastic waste generation or plastic footprint.
• On-site waste management: Targeted primarily towards institutions like schools, offices, hotels, residential societies, etc.