Bengaluru’s ‘Trashonomics’ Teaches The World How To Manage Solid Waste, Beats Greece, USA To Win Global Award

Trashnomics, a Bengaluru-based company, which was representing India at the Waste Education Awards, has made the country proud by coming in first position, reported The New Indian Express.

They were shortlisted for The International Solid Waste Association Young Professionals Group's (ISWA YPG) 'Waste Education Award'. Alongside Trashnomics, PCAI Junior from Greece and The Six R's from USA were shortlisted in the final three and have won the second and third place respectively. The voting system consisted of e-mails and polls on social media.

"We were awarded at the ISWA World Congress 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This was part of their global campaign #WhatHappensToMyWaste. We are happy to represent our country. We sent them all our work at Trashonomics, including the illustrative guide for children, our trainer programmes and workshops," said Archana Prasad Kashyap, co-author of Trashonomics.

Trashnomics is a five-chapter guide which describes itself as a simple guide on solid waste management. It teaches children on how to manage their waste in the cities of Bengaluru, Mysuru and Delhi, with Bhubaneswar joining the list recently.

The concept behind Trashonomics is to make children relate to the idea of waste management. They can learn to dispose of all kinds of waste - wet, dry, biomedical, electronic.

Volunteers have used hands-on activities in classrooms and have asked kids to segregate the dry waste they bring from home. This is to inculcate a responsible manner of segregation and disposing of waste.

With the support of The Anonymous Indian Charitable Trust (TAICT), they recently received a grant from Millenium Alliance which enabled them to train 150 government school teachers on the subject, allowing teachers to continue teaching children without depending on volunteers. The illustrative guide is soon set to be available in Tamil and Bengali as well.