Everybody likes to talk about the environment, the latest ‘go green’ fads, the virtues of organic foods and the harmful effects of carbon emissions. Very few actually do anything more than talk. Kuldeep Dantewadia is one of the few exceptions. The 24-year-old has been actively involved with environmental issues for two years now. His organisation, Reap Benefit, began two years ago as a pilot and became a social enterprise in no time at all. “People talk about spreading awareness and that's all very well, but having a feasible system is another matter,” said Dantewadia.

His philosophy: low cost systemic changes with respect to the environment. People need to understand that the process can be implemented by everybody. “The other part of our work is decentralised solid waste management solutions,” he added. Dantewadia and his team started out by visiting schools, colleges and apartment complexes, putting forth the idea of a functional, localised waste management system. This was back in the days when waste management wasn’t being spoken of much and the public seemed to care even less about it than they do now. “We received minimal support, even from schools,” Dantewadia admits. Reap Benefit also designs waste management systems for corporate houses.

“We come up with a waste management design and help the students understand the current state of affairs,” Dantewadia explains. “We show them how garbage disposal is an environmental, social and political problem.” For the average household, rubbish is just something that needs to be disposed of — nobody wants to take responsibility for where it goes. “Students are taken to semi landfills and shown mixed waste,” he said. The stench, the pests, and the liquid garbage that seeps into the ground and becomes part of the water cycle are things that nobody really understands until they actually see it. “It’s not possible to take students to a landfill, we can’t get permission for that sort of thing, so we take them to these garbage heaps and then to schools where a segregation system is actually in place.”

Composting can be done in a simple bucket, and water conservation can be as easy as emptying leftover water into a barrel each day as students leave their school. “Just emptying leftover water into a barrel can accumulate up to a 100 litres a day,” Dantewadia said. “That water can be used to water the plants in the school.” Once these little things become a habit, schools might even start expressing interest in composting on campus. “Once the process is working nicely, we introduce the schools to welfare associations and other organisations that are interested in buying dry waste,” said Dantewadia.

He also tries to explain how disgusting it is for those who have to separate dry waste from a mixed pile. “Who would want to put their hands in somebody else’s garbage? That’s a very difficult thing to do, even if it means a livelihood for the person doing it.” Once students understand this they are engaged in discussions on recycling and what that actually means.

“We are looking at it in terms of design innovation, designing bins, for example, that are at eye level, so people don’t have to look down to see what waste goes where. We’re also looking at what kinds of visuals would work to help people segregate and what colour combinations work best.”

“Seventy per cent of the model is low cost innovation and 30 per cent is education,” said Dantewadia. His outfit has designed software that will automatically send computers into hibernation mode and then calculate how much electricity has been saved in the process. “It works and it educates,” he points out. Decentralised solid waste management is the buzzword today and that's exactly what they want to achieve. “Today, there’s a new law and people are forced to pay attention to it, but we barely got any response at first,” he said. “Some people don’t understand the problem, others don’t understand the need.”

Life for people living around a landfill — the centralised mode of disposing of waste used so far — is hell, and they are beginning to resist. They have to put up with the unbearable odour, skin diseases, allergies, respiratory problems, pests like mosquitoes and rats and packs of hungry scavenging dogs that often attack villagers. To take a firsthand look at the situation would really put things in perspective for the people who “know the problem and don’t understand the need.” That is why students are the focus of the work that Reap Benefit does.