I remember stepping down from my sleeper bus at 8:00 o’clock in the morning and getting mesmerized by the grey-bluish clouds, cold breeze and the green mountains that surround Dehradun. Having spent the month of June in the scorching heat of Punjab, this particular moment felt like a relief. On the auto ride to the hotel, I got the chance to experience the colorful lanes of Dehradun. The city was welcoming me with its hustle and bustle and murals, making me feel an inner sense of joy. I reached my hotel surprisingly energetic. The 20-minute auto ride took away the exhaustion of my 9-hour overnight journey and I quickly got ready to visit Waste Warriors Society.
After another auto ride and a sky that was preparing for rain, I reached the Waste Warriors Society office. The NGO’s office is a 3-story building, which of course was meant to be a house when built. I reached the conference room and the program team was already waiting for me there.
After asking them to pardon me, as I would be asking a lot of questions out of curiosity, we started our conversation. The one thing I love about the social development sector is how people genuinely love the work they do.
Waste Warriors Society catalyzes systemic change to solve the waste management crisis of the Indian Himalayan Region. Their work lies at the intersection of climate change, biodiversity habitat conservation and informal livelihoods through bringing about behavioral change in the community.
With a team of 200+ warriors spread across Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, Waste Warriors Society strives to create effective waste management solutions across urban and rural landscapes, focusing on eco-sensitive and tourist areas. From Dharamshala to Uttarkashi, we discussed at length how the setup and the model are different for each Panchayat, even if they are a few kilometres apart.
One village whose Panchayat is cooperative had given the NGO a van to collect the waste with a worker whose salary is paid by collecting money from the villagers. In another village, they are still in talks to educate people about waste disposal.
Waste Warriors Society even has a Prayawaran Sakhi entrepreneur-based SHG model along the periphery of the Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve where they have trained local women how to segregate waste best suitable for recycling and make people people of the same. Kempty Falls, Bir Billing, Kasuali are other tourist areas where they are running multiple waste management projects.
While hearing about the excess waste disposal even in the remote areas of Uttarkashi, I got curious. How did so much plastic reach there?
After meeting the other teams and having a soulful lunch from the office kitchen, we were all set to visit the Materials Recovery Centre (MRF). Waste Warriors Society, with the help of the Municipal Corporation, has created a model ward in Dehradun where every household of the ward segregates their waste into 3 categories: wet, dry, glass and others.
Mani Ram ji, the lead driver, manages a team of 4 trucks that collect waste from the households and also encourages families to dispose of their waste mindfully. I was told that the MRF has a dry waste capacity of 3 tonnes per day and wet waste capacity of 1 tonne per day. When I reached there, the first thing that came to my mind was that it was the most organized waste collection I had ever seen.
With heaps of dry waste on one side and heavy machinery on the other, I was escorted to the place where large white sacks of dry waste were kept. A lady, one of their Prayavaran Sakhi, was sitting there doing the first level of segregation. Meanwhile, trucks filled with that day’s collection reached the area and started unloading. I was astonished to see these big bags of a day’s waste collection. The waste stays for a maximum of two days there before going into the process.
Just alongside the waste disposal area, I could hear old songs playing softly in the background. When we reached the waste disposal area, there were 7 partitions where seven didis were segregating heaps of dry waste into 20-22 categories. I didn’t know one could segregate household dry waste into so many categories. All the didis were local people who were trained and employed by Waste Warriors Society and further trained their local communities. One could feel the joy amidst their shy giggles.
We went to the compost site and I saw the machine that was funded by Give. All the wet waste was dried and mixed with sawdust and then transferred to this furnace-like machine which, in approximately 15 days, will turn into manure.
After the tour, we went to the office to meet a few of the local people who were now Waste Warrior Society employees. They shared how, at first, they were looked down upon as their community thought they were working with garbage. But now, things have changed and working in the waste disposal sector is considered a dignified job, all due to the systematic work of Waste Warriors Society. People now ask them for referrals. A lady came with her daughter and shared how first she started working, then her daughter and now, her son-in-law has also joined the team. One could feel the safe space and culture Waste Warriors Society have created for people!
With this, my trip came to an end. I couldn’t help but reflect on how the culture of a space works. You don’t need to be told the values, or the beliefs. You see it and feel it in every individual of the organization. I was returning with a sense of fulfillment and motivation that I gained not just from one person, but all the people I met that day. Their pride and their passion will remain in my heart for a long time.
To support Waste Warriors Society, you can learn more and donate here:
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I’m a small-town girl from Punjab, a software engineer by degree, but my heart is dedicated to the social impact sector. I believe in the power of stories and meaningful 1:1 conversations. Passionate about creating change, I strive to make a difference by learning and unlearning from others’ experiences.
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