WASTE MANAGEMENT
Exploring our relationship with waste, to design sustainable models of consumption and waste processing.
E[CO]WORK
Providing a dignified co-working space for E waste Dismantlers in New Delhi
E[co]work is envisioned as a co-working space for E-waste dismantlers in Delhi. It is a venture undertaken by the Sofies Group, an international sustainability consultancy firm. The idea behind Ecowork is rooted in the informal dismantling practices of electronic waste. India is lacking in the formalization of the waste recycling sector, and this project is a novel attempt at kick starting the pivot from informal to formal. Sofies has partnered with the Curry Stone Design Collaborative to engage with the dismantling community, to gain deep insights into their aspirations and challenges. E[co]work, Sofies and CSDC recognize them as equal stakeholders, working with them to arrive at a business model and design solutions in a participatory manner.
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Informal E waste dismantling in Delhi. Source: EMPA
The Challenge
India is the world’s 5th largest E-waste producer, with 2 million tonnes being generated annually. Out of which, only 1.8% is formally recycled. 95% of e-waste produced in India is handled by the informal sector. Large concentrations of which are in North- east Delhi, namely in neighborhoods of Mustafabad, Seelampur, Dilshad Garden and Mandoli for activities of dismantling, smelting,refurbishing and trading. While this informality has been providing a livelihood for the residents in those neighborhoods for over 25 years, their unsanitary working conditions and hazardous recycling processes is bringing them in the cross hairs of the local government and environmental control board. The concern is aggravated due to presence of lead, mercury, cadmium and other chemicals in electronic waste getting dismantled and processed in high density residential neighborhoods. With the recently introduced government regulations through E-waste management Rules, 2016, there is immense pressure to bring formalization in this sector.
However, the process of formalization is difficult for the e-waste micro-entrepreneurs due to the high capital cost and restrictive guidelines in the licensing procedure, which keeps their businesses illegal in nature. Due to the scale of the problem, the government has not been able to successfully implement the policy. The e-waste dismantlers, however, have become vigilant to protect the future of their work as they can see the change coming.
The E[co]work Concept
E[co]work, brainchild of Sofies Group, is attempting to bring formalization to the e- waste sector in India. The aim is to tackle the hazardous environmental and health impacts of informal dismantling by building a physical co-working space for the dismantlers. This will provide an affordable model for change in policy implementation around waste recycling in India.
The business model is designed as a pay-per-use service, to offer flexibility of time and money to the dismantlers.
The facility also also aims to help the dismantlers with licenses and consultancy services, to make the transition from informal to formal as smooth as possible.
The design of the space is in collaboration with the dismantlers as primary stakeholders, and tries to emulate their existing networks while providing for a sanitary, well lit and ventilated workspace.
E[co]work will also train the dismantlers in updated processes and machines used in e-waste dismantling, to help them deal with the ever growing amount of e-waste.
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The E[co]work facility once successful, will contribute to bringing together different stakeholders of the E-waste sector and help develop a circular economy.
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Burning wires to extract copper ,Delhi. Source: EMPA
Participatory Design
To effectively bring change to a sector that has been embedded in informal practices for around 30 years, it is pertinent to build trust with the community. They are recognized as equal stake holders in the process of formalization. Their human needs, aspirations and struggles are taken into account as important pointers for the design development. While quantitative data about material and supply networks are important, it is equally important to see the community as individual human beings.
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The first step in building trust with the dismantlers is to connect with Community Representatives (CR’s). These are individuals who are from the community and help in being the bridge between us and the community. CR’s are paid a sum in accordance with the scope of work, which includes speaking with community members, data collection and organising meetings. CR’s serve as an integral part of our community engagement, and we could not have made any progress in building trust without them.
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We also used novel techniques in data collection, using a qualitative research methodology that used narrative histories as data points, without the use of paper or electronic survey methods. Working in underserved communities always comes with a NGO-beneficiary dynamic, and that is something we are actively trying to move past, to be able to connect with the community at an equal level.
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Engaging in long conversations that give an insight into the lives of the dismantlers
Initial Research Workshop with Mr Ibrahim, our local expert in Delhi. Understanding the supply networks and business model of the Informal E-waste sector in Delhi through participatory mapping.
Learning the ropes of dismantling first hand.
In a largely male dominated industry, women do jobs that require more dexterity.
Mapping supply networks and material movement from India to Delhi. Designed to engage with dismantlers
Meeting with Dismantlers through community representatives. Informal interviews that lead to stories about aspirations and challenges.
Important drivers for the design process
Participatory Design workshop at one of the potential sites for the E[co]work facility.
Seen here: Sharing some of the maps created by us to get the dismantlers feedback.
Participatory Design workshop at one of the potential sites for the E[co]work facility.
Seen here: Dismanlters are marking out what their ideal work spaces should be like.
Swa-oorja : Envisioning a zero waste Pune
Final year thesis project in architecture school. The project is a decentralized Waste to Energy plant in Kothrud, Pune. Designed as a system to process organic waste and supply the generated electricity to that particular ward. It is envisioned as a city wide network of decentralized plants, that have ancillary community activities aimed at awareness generation, that are designed as per the specific needs of that ward.
Concern
The thesis investigates the notion of consumption and wastage in our capitalist, globalized world. Our relationship with waste usually starts with opening up the single use plastic chips packet, consuming it in five to ten minutes, and throwing it away in our dustbin. We hand our the garbage bag to our local waste collector, and that is the end of it. The packet then is transported to a landfill far away from the manicured cities we live in, to a place that is on the sidelines of urbanity, yet a very direct product of it. Places that we unfortunately choose to ignore, for the sake of cleanliness and purity. These places become landfills, where the packet that held 5 minutes of satisfaction, stays there for the next 500 years and more.These landfills are a scourge on the earth around it, extremely toxic to the people and environment around it.
In most cases, the communities that deal with, and live around our waste are also marginalized, either in poor urban or rural areas. Examples of this include the communities living around the Deonar Dumping Ground in Mumbai, who face severe health risks due to the proximity to the landfill, or the residents of Uruli Devachi, a small village outside Pune that has to live beside the city's landfill, which they have tried to protest on multiple occasions, sadly unsuccessfully. The urban infrastructures built to deal with our waste are also sidelined, tucked far away from the shiny CBD's and quaint suburbs. They do not figure into the urban discourse, and are considered unworthy of inclusion or reconsideration All this leads back to how we think, and more importantly feel about waste. This is where the primary concern lies, and this was a driving force behind the manifestation of the project.
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Concept
Would waste management be a better system if it was thought of in a holistic way, wherein the waste we generate be used in a more productive fashion instead of taking up valuable space and causing serious environmental hazards? .
Currently, all of Pune's waste is dumped in a massive landfill on the outskirts called Uruli Devachi. This has not stopped in spite of repeated protests and adverse health effects of the residents of the nearby town. Waste picker collectives like Swach are doing their part to contribute, but it is not enough. We have to start taking individual responsibility for our own waste.
Technologies like Waste to Energy are vital in making this happen, as it removes the need for dumping waste in landfills. Swa-oorja (Swa: Self, Oorja: Energy) is a system of decentralized WtE plants that has the capacity to power 18,500 homes at an average in Pune per ward per day. The system is also designed around awareness generation programs and social functions, made as per the specific requirements of the ward, that collectively acts as a loci within our urban spaces to engage, reflect and transform our relationship with consumption and wastage. The system is designed to depend on local human and material resources to generate employment and divert capital into the hands of the people who really need it. It is adaptable and scalable to different contexts and sizes, from a housing society, an informal settlement to a IT park.
Site Selection
Kothrud ward was selected for a model for this system, as its population density to waste generation ratio is relatively high (6.7 sq.m per person). Kothrud also holds the record for the fastest growing suburb in Asia, transitively generating a massive amount of residential and commercial waste. The ward generates around 50 Tonnes per day(TPD) of MSW out of which approximately 40 TPD is organic waste. After studying the fabric of the ward, it was deuced that Kothrud had negligible public park space. Hence the power plant would double up as a public park.
A former landfill site on an arterial road was chosen, which has a history as a landfill before it was banned in 1990’s, and is presently being used as a waste transfer station and office for Swach, the ragpicker’s collective. The site area is 27 acres with the road on the southern end, a hill to the north, and residential buildings on the east and west, along with a slum, that houses the swach employees to the southwest.
Design Development
Site specific design decisions include water harvesting, two way vehicular circulation, deriving an axis from an existing temple. The role of the architect in this case is more as a designer of systems. The site has been developed as an overlay of various programmatic systems which translate themselves in geometries, them being:
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1.Plane: The surface on which the social activities take place.
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2.Organic line: Circulation on the ground, traced by the instinctive movement of people on the site, and the topography.
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3.Point: A grid of 20m x 20m has been laid on the site, with the grid points translating themselves into buildings, and the workflow tracing the gridlines.
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4.Process Line: The line tracing the grid, which the processes and services follow, and also translates itself into a pedestrian bridge, for visitors to access the processes without interrupting the workflow.
Programming
The programme is divided into three parts, the power plant, which includes the waste to energy plant, processing units for dry waste, and an administration that includes a visitors centre and employee area.
The social programme is designed as supporting functions to the power plant and include a shop for selling artisanal items made from waste, a cafeteria, a library and workshops that can be used to for a variety of purposes, ranging from studios for artists to hosting exhibitions. An art gallery has also been included, to encourage art.
The third part is the permeable edge, on the southern end of the site, adjacent to the road, which relies on site specific design interventions, including a marketplace to replace the haphazard hawkers on Paud road, a community centre with public toilets and open space that the slum dwellers can use constructively. Adaptive reuse of the existing waste transfer station into an industrial jungle gym for children to play in. The existing Swach office has been used as a Nursery for toddlers and a cycle rent stand, while the office has been shifted to be a part of the administrative building
Built Form Language
The prismatic form has been translated as a prototypical modular system of steel trusses, one module being 10m wide by 12m long, made from scrap metal. This module is repeated according to the usage of the building, with functions requiring less space made up of lesser modules and so on. Fly ash bricks are used for the walls, plastic bottles have been used as roof tiles and gutters, Bottle bricks have been used to make the seating, and reused oil drums have been used as lighting.
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The aesthetic of the project has been designed to communicate a certain level of relate-ability, with the building form being reduced to platonic solids, prisms, spheres and cylinders, with the interpenetration between them make for the architectural language
In Conclusion
‘Architects have to become designers of eco-systems. Not just beautiful facades and buildings, but systems of economy and ecology, wherein we channel the flow not only of people, but also the flow of resources through our cities and buildings’ – Bjarke Ingles.
This quote sums up the concern for the project and the approach taken toward the thesis. Systems of living have to be thought about in a holistic way, and the role of architects in today’s time is a designer of these systems, moving past the irrelevant dialectic of form vs function.
Swa-oorja is an attempt at such a system, and it is designed to highlight and address waste management and power generation as cogs of the same wheel of sustainable living.
Design + Products of Waste Recovery
Three day Design workshop and 2 day conference at A Social Design Festival,Goa 2020. Organized by Kokum Design.Engaging with the waste management system in Panaji to design solutions for effective waste recovery. In close association with the Municipal Corporation of Panaji City.
An emerging recovery economy from discarded products changes the nature of urban waste today. Appliances, batteries, plastics, bulbs can be recycled with degrees of profitability depending on the design, however, city corporations struggle with outdated modes of collection, and peoples behavior patterns. The workshop sought to address this gap using the power of design.
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Participants were from a variety of different backgrounds, including architecture, graphic design, industrial design, computer coding and political science.
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Waste sorting Facility in Panaji
Women workers sorting dry waste into 16 different categories, at the waste sorting centre, Panaji
Workers preparing the single use non recyclable waste for compaction. This is sent to a local incinerator to prepare fly ash bricks.
