A ‘cash for trash’ model in Tamil Nadu proves successful
A project in a town in Tamil Nadu pays six rupees for a kilogram of garbage. Dubbed the 'Garbage Bank', it incentivizes people to separate their trash and donate it, contributing to a circular economy in the process.
Transcript
00:00 Litter on the street always infuriated Malarveli Muthu and her daughter-in-law Rajavalli Rajiv.
00:09 They thought that people might not throw their garbage on the street if they could get money
00:13 for it instead.
00:15 And that's how the idea for the Garbage Bank was born.
00:23 In three years, we separated and recycled nearly 150,000 kilos of garbage before it
00:30 got taken to the dump and got incinerated.
00:36 The women pay 6 rupees, that's 7 Euro cents, for a kilo of waste.
00:41 They buy plastic bags, paper, cardboard, clothing, all materials that their recycling partners
00:47 can process later.
00:49 The customers don't even have to drop their waste off at the garbage bank themselves.
00:54 The project's eight employees collect the separated waste from some 700 households in
00:59 Virudhunagar.
01:00 Initially, we didn't separate our garbage and it littered our streets.
01:06 But we followed the project's advice and started handing in our garbage.
01:10 Now we separate paper, plastics, cardboard boxes and our garbage is collected every Friday.
01:16 So far we have handed in 240 kilos.
01:19 I got a receipt and once it reaches 300 kilos, with an extra amount, I'll be paid 3000 rupees.
01:28 The two entrepreneurs have divided Virudhunagar into six collection zones.
01:33 Once the waste has been picked up from customers across the town and taken to the garbage bank,
01:38 it's properly sorted.
01:41 Apart from separating garbage into plastics, papers, cardboard boxes and metals, the garbage
01:52 bank also separates 66 other types of waste.
01:56 To take a juice packet as an example, we separate it into outside wrapper, the inside aluminium
02:02 foil and the straw.
02:04 Recyclers pay good money for separated garbage and that means we can make our customers happy
02:10 by giving them better value for their garbage.
02:17 The garbage bank has already paid out over 200,000 rupees for trash.
02:22 Its founders hope they'll inspire similar projects.
02:30 More people should step up and do this sort of thing.
02:32 If my mother-in-law and I could do it in this small area, others who worry about garbage
02:38 littering the streets can also do something about it.
02:42 The garbage bank should be an example.
02:44 That's what we hope.
02:50 Waste recycling can be a profitable business.
02:53 Not only does the cash for trash model help protect the environment, it also contributes
02:58 to a circular economy.
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